The Beginning of an End
by LadyCroft.Undead19
Summary: His story starts not by beginning but by ending. He was just a normal nine year old yet he died that day. Fate is cruel... But his story ends and begins. He wakes up upon the sands of Hueco Mundo and starts over. Forgets and remembers. Lives and dies. Lies but always tells the truth. And he protects his new family. Warnings: AU, Arrancar!Ichigo, BAMF!Ichigo.
1. Chapter 1

Hello readers!  
I'll start by warning that this story contains: BAMF!Ichigo, Strong!Ichigo, Arrancar!Ichigo. This story has a god like Ichigo and if you don't like it don't read it. I write this for the purpose of writing and not to please anyone.  
I will only be explaining things better in later chapter so there will be unexplained time skips.

There are author notes at the end of the story.

I do not own Bleach or any of the characters, except my O.C personality of Ichigo.

* * *

Most stories would start with a beginning. But this is not like most stories, this one doesn't start but instead ends. It starts not by remembering but by forgetting, starts when nothing is known and everything is new.

It's a strange feeling to start anew, to turn the page and to not look back on what you once knew. And it's scary to those who never thought they would one day endure such fate, but what most people forget is that an ending is also a beginning. It's also a start but particularly different than most because it involves you knowing what will happen sooner or later, a perfect example of this would be a movie starting during the final confrontation before the credits roll.

And like I said before this story starts by forgetting and not by remembering, though it could be said that I will be remembering and it will be my character that will be forgetting. I've not been present in any of these events, I'm merely an observer on the sidelines, a non-present narrator and the omnipotent and omnipresent being known as the Writer. Nothing more, nothing less. Simple and easy to remember and it also gives me a wide range of methods to how well I should write this down.

Well, no matter. That's my pet phrase by the way. Not that someone like me could have a real use for one, I mostly use it to annoy the hell out of people.  
Ain't it fun? No, we'll no matter.

Rewinding...

Starting anew is such a scary thing, I know this because I've been through it and I've also made a lot of people go through it. I find it highly irritating that most of my characters hate me but I just let it slide. I'm not that bad of a person... I think.

Starting a new beginning is just as scary of losing all hope or feeling as if you'll never be found when you're lost. I know that feeling too but I find it amusing to me, my most sadistic and evil side of me at least, that my character does not. Such a young and innocent beginning turning into what could be called a bitter sweet story. After all, who can certainly say they are happy if they do not remember where or who they were before?

Well, no matter.

Oh, such innocence, such bright future ahead... And I'm going to take it away from him. Just like taking candy from a child, and quite literally too. A young boy of age eight with clear brown eyes and bright orange hair. That had a smile that stretched from ear to ear, seen only by his dear and loving mother and his two sisters.  
Twin girls of age two who could look so different than each other and still remain alike.

Twin girls that would, most likely, forget about that older brother of theirs after a few years.  
They would not be able to remember what his voice sounded like and they would only remember how he used to look through pictures that did nothing else than to remind them that he was so young when it happened. And their mother? Well, mothers are really hard to forget about but it would eventually all come down to the same end.  
Only pictures and memories or even old stories can only do so much for someone who wants something to hold dearly or to tell they love him or her.

Well, no matter.  
Life isn't fair and it will certainly never be, so they might as well learn it know and not be disappointed in the near future. And transforming, or reducing, a family of five to a family of three was just the perfect example of Murphy's law.  
Whatever bad can happen will happen. No use running from it because it will catch you, and if you hide from it, it will do much worse than before. I know this of course but yet again _he_ does not.

To him the only important things in life are having fun, going to school and loving his family. Survival is not in his instincts, awakened at least, because everyone deep down knows how to survive. That and natural selection...  
Well, no matter. And trust my word on this that that lack of survival instincts would cost the poor innocent boy something that was irreplaceable sooner or later.  
So I could be thanked for once since I gave him a very important lesson that day. That child, childish, weak and naive boy was completely unaware of the dangers and shadows that lurked in plain sight all around him.

He only knew of what was warm, and kind, and sweet, and safe that stood in the light. But he was a stranger to the reality that was life. Cruel but very much real. It was almost as if he had his eyes blindfolded to the reality around him.  
And there was no excuse as to how he was when he had the perfect eyes to _see_ everything around him.

But that would soon change. I had seen, or would see, what will most certainly happen if said child was left to the devices of those pure and warm, kind, people and protected from the shadows. If he continued to walk down the path that was beginning to form he would face enormous challenges and misery. War that could have been easily avoided and precious lives could have been saved.

But there is no use in wondering about _what if_ and instead be focused in accomplishing a or a few changes that would allow a brighter and lighter future to be forged. And if it had to be created through the pain and possible trauma of one child, so be it. I'm not above believing the saying: " _You have to lose something to gain something_ ".

Well, no matter. I'm really not going to tell you about what I'll be doing, though, it would spoil the fun, no?  
But no need to worry, I don't really believe about killing off main characters. Even if my opinion concerning main characters could be questioned.

But back to the story line.  
Continuing my _flawless_ narrative, I will start by describing where the beginning, or end, of the story starts.

The sun was just beginning to rise on the calm town of Karakura, with a few fluffy white clouds drifting across the pale blue sky of the morning, and several households were already starting their routines and falling into the monotonous daily life most of them had.

Light from the slowly rising sun entered the light colored room where it's only inhabitant was still sleeping. Soft snores and a few twitches were the only indicators that the young eight year old was deep within dreamland. But today it the boy wasn't having a that great of a dream.

It had been occurring for a few weeks now and the boy's parents were starting to worry. You see, this boy whose name was Kurosaki Ichigo, wasn't a normal child. He was the oldest son of a very happy and caring parents. _Who hid very dangerous secrets and powerful burdens_.

The father was Kurosaki Isshin, a former captain **shinigami** of the Gotei 13, and who belonged to one of the noble houses, namely the Shiba clan, and who had been hiding from his own people. And why he was hiding? Easy, the shinigamis were souls who were very strong and special and that had only two default orders:

\- To save and help Plus souls of the dead to cross over to the afterlife.

\- To defeat and purify **Hollows**.

This was by no means easy as it was dangerous to face hollows. Now hollows were once-upon souls that had given in to negative emotions, stayed too long in the living world or had been attacked by another hollow and had lost their _Hearts_. Losing their hearts made them turn into monsters made only of the most evil and disgraceful things.

It made them forget who they were and made them be consumed by a never-ending hunger for spiritual adept souls. That is why they were dangerous if they were left to run around unchecked. But since they were still souls they weren't killed, so to say, but instead they were slayed by shinigami's swords, called **Zanpakutous** , who had the ability to purify them and not destroy them.

But such respect and power came with rules imposed with an iron fist and needed to be followed diligently. And those who didn't follow or obeyed those rules were, well... Punished accordingly. As for the rules themselves there are too many to name, so I'll just state the obvious one.

 _Humans and shinigami are not to enter any type of a relationship._

And Ichigo's father had gone ahead and did just that. Married a human woman, who was not short on her list of secrets. Kurosaki Masaki was her name and she was no ordinary human. She was a **Quincy** , humans born with amazing abilities and power similar to the shinigamis. With minor differences...

One of them would be in quantity, because quincies were rare and almost non-existing and extinct. Other difference was the choice of abilities, range and power of their weapons. But most of all was the fact that quincies did not simply purify hollows. They destroyed them, erasing them from ever existing or being sent to the afterlife.

That was also the fact that made them being extremely rare these days... The had been almost completely eradicated by the shinigamis. The same shinigamis that they now considered being their mortal enemies and that she, Masaki, had decided to wed and have children with.

How they had met and how they fell in love was enough to create a soap opera. Which equals to me respecting it but not touching it even if I had a ten foot pole.

But anyways, their children did not know any of that and lived peacefully without knowing about their bloodline and ancestry. The two adults were doctors and had opened a clinic where they both worked and lived in.  
And though I called their lives peaceful it didn't mean that there were no risks.

They lived in hiding, not raising any suspicion and trying to appear as normal as they could. Easy for the two baby girls who barely had any contact with the spiritual world, worse for the eight year old boy who had been able to see spirits and the whole _other_ mess even before he could walk.

Which was aggravated by having received the full power of both parents plus a unwanted burden and gift from his mother in particular. You see, when Masaki was younger and was dating Isshin she had been attacked by an Hollow, one very powerful and different than all the rest, and she was infected by it. It caused her to be _hollowfied_ , which meant her soul was partially hollow like.

In an attempt to stop this effect they, Masaki and Isshin, sealed the inner hollow soul using their powers, leaving them without any while the seal needed to be in place, and it worked. Partially, as when Ichigo was born the hollow was passed down into him.

But it was different than his mother's, as his had always been part of him since before birth and not a parasite than suddenly appeared. So it was accepted as normal and not as an anomaly. Which in turn was a good thing and a bad thing in the near future.

And the poor boy had just won the lottery, soul wise at least, since being a shinigami-quincy-hollow hybrid was sure to catch unwanted attention. Which made their parents fearful for them because if Soul Society, where the shinigami and souls lived, frowned upon human-shinigami relationships then their offspring were sure to be shamed and hated.  
More so since they had Quincy blood to the mix... And like I said, it was rare and Ichigo himself was something that had never been born before.

I won't say there weren't attempts at creating artificial hybrids but let's just leave it at the mention that it didn't work out.

Now going back to the hollows, since it's best to explain this now, are creatures that only want one thing in their lives: **Evolve**. Hollows evolve into stronger and more unique ones after they have consumed enough souls and harnessed enough power.

First there were **Gillians** , those were masses of compressed hollows. Basically hollows were fused together creating a Gillian, mindless monstrosities that could easily reach the skyline and destroy a lot just by walking around. Think about a taller Godzilla...

But Gillians are weak, or at least weak enough for a group of trained shinigami to kick its ass, and can only attack by rampaging around and by shooting Ceros's.

Secondly there were **Adjuchas** who were now individual hollows. They are powerful and since they retain a controlling mind and a few memories they could prove to be a problem in case they are taken lightly. Adjuchas also develop their own set of attacks and groups, no longer mindlessly walking in into battle and now are able to strategize.

And finally there were the **Vasto Lordes**. They are really rare, only a handful of them actually exist, and very very frightening. The rule was that any shinigami bellow lieutenant and captain level and less than three or two of them were to run at the earliest opportunity. Vasto Lordes were captain level hollows with a complete human mind, if it could be called that, and didn't need to eat souls in big quantities.  
So you never knew when he or she would show up.

They were formidable opponents. At first that was the last and final evolution that hollows could achieve but... _There was a variant_.

A secret evolution that many had long forgotten about. In current times, they were rarer than Vasto Lordes and ten times more powerful and were considered a bad omen to both shinigami and hollows alike.

They were **Arrancars**.

Hollows that had shattered and ripped off their hollow masks, turning them with a completely human body and their powers took the form of a sword, a zanpakutou. Because Arrancars were, technically, hollows that had received or attained shinigami powers. They released their swords at will causing them to use their full hollow powers.

So you can see why Arrancars were so feared. They were powerful, very much so, and while there was rarely any chance of meeting one in your lifetime, it wasn't impossible. The higher up shinigamis were aware that they existed but showed themselves so arrogant that they believed they were the strongest beings there is.  
So they didn't try to control or make peace with the Arrancars, no they ignored them and if they ever met one the order was clear.

 _Kill on sight_.

Arrancars really didn't need to eat human souls at all and could easily function without souls at all but that was unheard by the shinigami. Arrancars had no reason to attack humans or shinigamis, but to them they were no more than regular hollows that only loved to kill and destroy.

A big mistake on their part as the Arrancars would prove to be the key into wining the upcoming war. And I'm not going to make them realize it now, no let them learn from experience, for now at least, I need their big heads to deflate a bit from the shock of realization and not by compassionate feelings or emotions.  
I'm not into sappy stories.  
Most of the times, anyways.

Well, no matter.

What you think I had forgotten? Fat chance, it's too fun to miss out on.

Turning back to the story, the eight year old hybrid was sleeping deeply while the rest of the household prepared for their day. He slumbered all while his parents cooked and made sure everything was organized and in place.

And while he slept, he had the same strange dream he had been having for weeks. A dream where he would be surrounded by darkness without a way out and weird and distant voices called out to him. He couldn't really hear what they were saying but it left him with the feeling that it was a warning.

 _Something was coming_.

And he would always wake up before he could comprehend any of it. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Ichigo rose from his bed and made his way downstairs. His sisters were sitting in their chairs and his mother, his dear loving mother, was just finishing placing the plates on the table.

A normal routine of a normal family. A normal life that would soon be turned upside down.

 _Cruel even to my standards..._

* * *

The morning continued with nothing out of the ordinary, his mother and his father worked at the clinic and he went to school. Learned what little he would learn for a long time before he actually had to once again sit down in one of the uncomfortable chairs made for students to kill their backs on.

The only thing that I, as a writer, find it important to note is that the boy was shy, painfully so, cowering away from anyone that spoke to him. Plus he hasn't had many friend because of his hair color, you see when you have a different something that makes you stand out only two things can happen:

They either find you cool.

Or they hate your guts.

I'm sure you can guess what the got with his luck. So his day wasn't that great for me to narrate through it. I'll just jump towards the important part.

So young Ichigo, wanting to be true to his name, had karate lessons in a dojo near the river that Karakura had. Not that it made that great of a difference since Ichigo was a boy that hesitated to turn to violence. He'd rather have a chat or tea with his bully than to hit him. So to add salt to the wound, Ichigo who means ' _one who_ protects' was often believed to be the other meaning to his name and that was ' _strawberry_ '.

He was mocked by his peers due to his bright hair color and only was truly close to his mother. No matter how sad he was as soon as he caught sight of her he would smile a wide smile just for her and his eyes would light up like a Christmas tree.

So I'll resume my narrative and continue. That afternoon the weather was awful, it seems to have taken a turn for the worse during the morning and the river near the dojo was overflowing. Ichigo and his mother were going back home for the day when it happened. You see, Ichigo since he had been able to see them since birth had a hard time differentiating spirits from humans.

So when he saw a young girl about to jump into the dangerous waters of the river he did not knew that it was a spirit and not a real person. So he ran to try and help the girl, not knowing he was about to fall into the trap of a very disgusting hollow named Grand Fisher.

Grand Fisher was one of the most annoying hollows that I ever got the chance to observe. It was just the type of Hollow to attack and consume any unfortunate soul that happened to run into him. He had already made victim several shinigami and an uncountable number of souls before this day.  
And today too innocent souls would be lost because of him. The boy and his mother would both cease to exist in a matter of minutes. Ain't it just mind blowing the fact that someone who you just saw a few moments ago will die shortly afterwards?

Imagine the faces of those too innocent children sitting at their desks and be told that their classmate will never come back.  
And their confusion as to why he wouldn't be coming back?

It's something no one should have to go through. Yet life pratically dictates that it has to happen. The brighter note is that _he_ won't be alone. Where he's going there's _someone_ waiting just for the right opportunity to fall onto his lap.  
And I'll soon give it to him.

I had watched several different lifetimes before actually deciding to step in myself, but most surprising, or not so much, was that Grand Fisher always had the same role. He is that cataclysm that would start, or end, the once-perfect life and turn it into a nightmare. That would change everything and everyone in the small quiet town of Karakura.

Ichigo watched as the girl was scant inches away from the edge as he ran towards her. He ignored his mother's cries when she realized something was wrong and the painful headache that seemed to be screaming warnings.  
The young boy didn't mind them though. He was so close.

He just had time to barely touch a finger to the girl when he reeled back. A shock like sensation zapped him when he finally touched the girl. No, the bait that Grand Fisher used to attract spiritual adept souls. And just as the boy touched it, whatever type of cover he was using to remain unseen was forcefully nullified and he was left exposed. (That sounds so wrong, sorry)

Ichigo stopped in his tracks and he numbly noticed that his mother, not wanting her son to be hurt or worse, ran to him and managed to grab him. He stared wide-eyed at the monster, the really big and scary monster, in front of him. It snarled and tossed its tail towards them.  
And even though Kurosaki Masaki didn't have any powers anymore instincts are impossible to be removed. They acted and she pushed her son out of harms way, it was just her 'luck' that at that time there were no passersby nearby. Which proved possible the worst case scenario that the woman was currently thinking of.

Her senses were weaker than they were due to the seal but also for the fact that she had given birth to twins two years ago, and that took a toll on someone who had to manage with a busy work life, parenting and putting up with her goof of a husband.  
Yes, Masaki could be called a supermom but even her had limits. Which were now being pushed on edge trying to keep her child safe.

She needed to get him out of here. It didn't take a genius to figure out who the bastard hollow had scented.  
Ichigo was frozen stiff against her, and that didn't surprise Masaki at all, even if he had seen spirits since birth seeing a hollow up and close to your face was completely different.  
Masaki held Ichigo close and continued to try to out maneuver the hollow but after falling towards the almost flooded riverbank she had a bone-chilling realization.

She was no match for her opponent.

Grand Fisher cornered them and, with a swipe of his claws, separated the souls of Masaki and Ichigo from their bodies. Sending both in opposite directions, the hollow noticed that the boy was dazed and made no attempt to move but the woman just wouldn't give up.  
He decided to target her first.

Grabbing her wasn't a problem, keeping her still was a bit difficult but he handled it, and he slowly raised he to his eye level and gave her a mocking glare before he started to consume her soul.  
Right in front of the horrified boy...

* * *

Inside his head it was chaos.  
There are no other words to describe it. The still forming inner world was in shambles and there was next to none that the spirits could do to stop it. Options were running out and not even the level-headed old man could fathom a solution to the problem that could easily end them.

Though he noted with a grim look at the other _two_ spirits, because there was no way he would leave the job to just one of them, could perhaps ' _help_ ' the boy without destroying him completely.  
Even if the aftershock would leave him unstable and most certainly confused about what happened.

At worst it would kill him...

Giving up on trying to find a safer way out, he released the seal he had cast as soon as he had gained conscience. He would try his best to save the most important knowledge and information to when he deemed the boy ready and he would keep a tight look on what the other, most concerning, spirit did.  
The older man weary sighed.

* * *

Finally done with consuming the woman's' soul, Grand Fisher turned to face the weak and useless child that had simply remain on the wet ground.  
Or where the once weak and useless child had been laying on the ground...

The hollow noted with a twinge of horror that the whole atmosphere around the boy seemed to have dropped several degrees and that it was almost as if he was not in the presence of the child anymore.  
It seemed as if his soul had taken a jump start due to the trauma. The burden his mother had passed down to him, plus a interestingly attached spirit, broke free of the cell they were being confined in.

One took immediate control over the body of the young boy while the other focused on shutting down the mind of the boy. He had seen enough already to have to suffer through seeing what they were going to do with the hollow that dared to harm him.  
Both of the most violent spirits, resident inside the eight year old, were mad with the hollow for two distinct reasons:

\- It had dared to harm her _wielder_.

\- It was going to kill his _King_.

There were no other reasons they needed to get over their mutual love-hate relationship and focus entirely on sending this... abomination, because calling it a hollow was insulting to them, to kingdom come.

To Ichigo it would seem as if he was suddenly, but oh-so gently, pulled from the control of his body and was suddenly floating amidst empty darkness. But he wasn't alone, no, Ichigo could feel someone's presence near him. He just couldn't see him or her.

With no seal the power that usually was kept away from the boy's aura was released. A hole, a black hollow hole, appeared on the boys chest right where his heart should be.  
But the boy no longer took notice of any of that. But Grand Fisher did.

 _He noticed the white claws that were forming over the boy's hands_.

 _He noticed the chain linking him to his body melting and crumbling in a matter of seconds_.

 _He noticed how the boy's eyes turned cold and unforgiving_. Gaining black sclera in both of them but his irises were different. One was almost like molten gold while the other was similar to shining silver.

 _He noticed the wide sickening grin that appear on his face_.

 _He noticed the bony white mask that formed on his face, almost perfectly divided_. On one side, with the golden eye, there were blood red markings across it. While on the other, with the silver eye, there were deep blue wave-like line below his eye and down his chin.

But he did not notice one thing. He couldn't have...

The boy's soul had started a countdown. One that would change everything.

 **Fifteen...**

Ichigo charged towards Grand Fisher with an inhuman speed and slashed his clawed hands across the mask the monster wore. But hitting the blocking arm instead.

 **Fourteen...**

Grand Fisher roared in pain from the slash, and ignoring every instinct that told him to flee, decided to attack back the grinning boy.

 **Thirteen...**

Grand Fisher attempted to crush Ichigo but the boy jumped away from the monster, avoiding the hit and raised both his clawed hands to the monsters mask.

 **Twelve...**

Grand Fisher brought his other arm to block it but Ichigo wasn't having none of that and not wanting to repeat the action again, slashed the arm clean off. Grinning wickedly at the shrieking monster.  
Though he managed to push the ' _boy_ ' towards the other side of the riverbank.

 **Eleven...**

The spirits knew they were running out of time, that and the fact their patience was running thin and both were worried about the prolonged exposure of their power on their too young wielder.  
Deciding not to drag this much longer they started to gather their reioku. Because no matter what that monster was going down.

 **Ten...**

Ichigo raised his hand towards Grand Fisher and locked gazes with the monster. Losing all hesitation and care for the world, the spirits released the cold and deadly presence they had.

 **Nine...**

Grand Fisher did sense the change about the boy but he was stupidly determined to kill him and eat his soul. He made his final mistake as he charged to the young orange haired boy.

 **Eight...**

A single finger was raised in Grand Fisher's direction and from a moment to the next the riverbank was enveloped by a red and dark blast of energy. The town shook, though it went unnoticed by most, and the few that sensed it were worried.  
There was not a hint of humanity in that aura.

The _observer_ on the sidelines (apart from me), raised his eyebrows at the scene in front of him. When he sensed that mass of power plus the presence of the wife and son of his ' _friend_ ' he had not planned on being too late to save one of them, nor seeing the other fighting and winning against a wanted Hollow.  
Or worse, the fact that the boy had seemingly turned into a hollow himself.

 **Seven...**

The blast cleared away and revealed a huge crater and the slowly dissolving mass of black that had previously been Grand Fisher. The too still and too cold body of Kurosaki Masaki was left untouched by the blast.  
Ichigo lower his arm and sadly gazed at the body of ' _his_ ' mother. Both spirits winced at the thought of telling that to their wielder.

 **Six...**

A tug on their senses warned the two spirits that Ichigo's conscience was stirring. They felt their powers being crammed back inside their own special place in the boys soul, and their hold on his body was slowly taken away.  
They stood at the side of the crater and only had time to glance at each other before the boy regain awareness.

 **Five...**

He blinked once and unsure of what to do looked at his hands, noticing they were trembling. He saw shards of bony white matter crumbling from them, though he didn't notice that the mask on his face wasn't showing any signs of dissolving.  
Ichigo didn't saw the black portal that appeared behind him.

 **Four...**

Not the hands that pushed him through said portal. The last thing he saw was the stripped white and green hat that shadowed a blond's eyes and the tired smile he had on his face. The boy saw his lips part to mutter the words 'Good luck'.  
And certainly he did not notice the slightly visible string of reiatsu that was tied around him before disappearing and leaving the eight year old to realize he was now falling from the sky.

 **Three...**

The headache was back in full strength, images flashed in his mind. Some he knew, some he did not. His life passed in front of his eyes.  
He remembered... He was a shinigami.

No... He was just a normal kid. What the hell was a shinigami?

His name was Shiba Kaien.

No, his name was Kurosaki Ichigo.

He had died.

He was alive.

 **Two...**

Memories, emotions, feelings, doubts, strength, family, pain... Everything scattered inside his head. He couldn't think straight, it was just so painful.  
There was so much pain. In this life, in the life before, it didn't matter anymore.

That's right... it didn't matter anymore...

 _Why?_

The boy found himself asking that over and over again even amidst the confusion of life and death that was happening inside him. If none of that was important why did he remember it?

\- _Do you wish to forget?_

Did he? Did he really want to forget?

\- _Do you want to start over?_

He did? But how could he start over without knowing anything?

\- _Not knowing allows you to find who you truly are..._

That's right. He wanted to know who he was. He didn't want any more pain. He wanted... He wanted...

\- _Tranquility._

Yeah. He wanted peace and quiet.  
Silence... Time to think. Time to learn. Time to live without worrying about what's around him.

A contradiction...

He wanted to know but wished to forget.  
 _Ignorance is bliss..._  
Why couldn't he just... restart?

\- _Is that your wish?_

Wishes are sacrifices... I wonder what I'll **lose**...

\- _Who knows? Maybe one day you'll find out... Maybe not_.

Even with such answer I find it tempting... Just tell me one thing...

\- _What is it you want to know?_

Will I ever remember everything?

\- _That is up to you whether you want to forget completely or just for a while. It's your choice._

Then allow me to forget but not erase. Lock it and leave the key. I want time...  
Yeah, that's what I want most... Time.

\- _Then I'll grant your wish... Rest now. It will soon be over..._

 **One...**

I was dimly aware of my body dropping onto the white sands that stretched endlessly on. My eyes, unfocused, barely had time to look at the dark starless sky where a lone moon stood, contrasting, before my hand grabbed the bony mask over my face and tore it off.

 **Zero...**

At that moment I knew pain...

* * *

Inside the boys' soul his inner world was crumbling. He wasn't dying per say... But whatever made him, well, him was being hidden deep inside him as to not disturb his current state.  
Which wouldn't do anything much as the boy was already screaming in an agonizing way from the pain of ripping of, unconsciously, the hollow mask that he had on.

 ** _He wasn't a hollow because his Quincy Blood prevented it._**

 ** _He wasn't human because he wasn't alive anymore._**

 ** _He wasn't a shinigami because he wasn't completely dead yet._**

 ** _He was just standing in between everything_ _._** Sitting on the fence, waiting for there to be a reason for him to pick a side.

But there just wasn't one there yet, so his body did what it did best in a moment of crisis.  
 _It evolved_.

The once called weak boy just up and jumped every single evolution Hollows had and ripped his own mask off becoming an Arrancar. One that possessed two souls inside him. One that was being dotted upon by **fate** itself.  
One that chose to forget everything in order to remember.

 _He who chose to start._

 _He was no longer Kurosaki Ichigo._

 _He was no longer Shiba Kaien._

 _He was nameless._

 _Boundless and weightless..._

 _He was free._

 _Yet he was trapped right now._

Well, no matter.

The spirit residents inside him looked upon his frail and shivering body as the tore over so many layers of pain and suffering. They were three very distinct beings that came together under the most surprising of situations.  
The first one to awaken was a young girl. Her hair was so long it reached all the way up to her feet, and was blue like the smooth waves of the ocean. But her reflection scared her.

Those who looked at her would see a simple smile and bright gentle blue eyes but her reflection seemed to mock those looks. Her reflection was pale white with cold eyes that bore all the way down to your soul. Black sclera and silver pupils. Hollow.  
It scared her. She wanted to cry as to why it had to happen to her but then she remembered what had happened and she froze.

If she was alive... what about her wielder?

Was he alright?

She tried to call him but was enable to. She was confused as to why that was but her answer came soon enough.  
They had died. And yet they had been reborn. Her wielder was long gone but she had a second chance at protecting him. And she would do anything in her power to protect him. The gentle and silly orange haired child that possessed the soul of the man, that lovable and caring yet stupid and reckless man, that was once her wielder.

And she waited. And waited for the time where she would be wielded again.

But soon she wasn't alone anymore.

An old man one day materialized...

He was a lean-built, stoic middle-aged man, tall with pale skin and high cheekbones, stubble with long ragged black hair with brown highlights.  
His attire consisted of a tattered white dress shirt with an upturned collar and cuffs, black pants and low-heeled boots, he had a long black overcoat that flared into ragged ends. He had brown-tinted and semi-transparent sunglasses.

It made him seem confident and powerful and even a bit like a wanderer that been travelling for a while. Though some aspects of him made him seem more like a noble. He was... _strange_.  
And he was confused at seeing her. He did not expect there to be another spirit around.

While the girl was ecstatic at finally meeting another spirit. She was weary but part of her just wanted to up and hug the newcomer just because she wasn't alone anymore. But she knew better than that _so_ instead of tackling him the girl started to babble away.  
To his credit the man only stumbled and looked absolutely lost for about five seconds before he schooled his features and proceeded in turning around and take off in search of a quieter place.

The girl only took a glance before running to catch the man again. She wanted to know him because, of what little she understood, they might just be roommates for the rest of their lives.

They had been together for about a week, or a month or even a year, before their lives took a turn for the worse. A new ' _companion_ ' appeared. A young teenager that was completely bleached white.  
White skin, white hair, white shihakushō and a black cloth belt. His eyes were just like the ones her reflection had except gold while hers were silver. The bleached figure also had a blue tongue and black fingernails.

To all honesty their first meeting wasn't that great. You see, unlike her who had been ' _normal_ ' before awakening inside Ichigo's soul the teenager only knew this _type_ of him and easily embraced the ' _other side_ '.  
Which caused him to deliriously start laughing and summoning his zanpakutou before charging at them as soon as he materialized.

Suffice to say that while the old man and the girl were able to restrain him, the old man found out about the other two spirits real identities. And all hell broke lose...

The old man was the manifestation of **Quincy** powers, and it seems that hate for shinigamis runs soul deep, and it turns out he was not that keen on letting two hollowfied spirits run amok inside the inner world.  
So he sealed them. Together...

Oh, the girl hoped that the noble-like bastard had an headache after the day long shout-out she and the bleached guy had. They didn't have their swords with them anymore so it wasn't like they could harm each other _too_ severely but when the old man finally unsealed them they looked like they had just come out of a cat fight.  
Scratched and both looking unreasonably ruffled and torn.

Oh, if looks could kill the old man would have been dead nine times over. That, plus the almost completely hidden smirk that happen to flash in his features after he saw them.  
At that moment she would have easily helped the teenager in shaving off a couple of layers of that hair. And perhaps his own ' _bonding_ ' time locked with the bleached guy in an isolated room.  
See if _he_ liked that.

But the two hollowfied spirits did nothing, well the girl didn't the white teenager just up and decided to fight the old man, and they soon came to an understanding that as long as no one crossed the line about what to do and what not to do they could be kept unsealed.  
Though their powers were sealed and no arguments were given by the girl at that.

Yeah, she was mad that the old man, who only appeared after her, was assuming he could boss them around but she had no intentions in returning to the sealed room.

Not that they needed to worry because after the initial reluctance to even be in the same room as them came the acceptance and partnership that ' _normal_ ' spirits had. Plus everyone wanted the same thing: Their wielder to be stronger.  
So they watched as he grew and slowly started to try and communicate with him in their own special way before that rainy afternoon happened.

Because now everything was in shambles. The inner world was slowly vanishing leaving behind a sole white room that had no doors or windows. They weren't locked but the conveniently placed sofas and chairs indicated that they would be in there for a while.  
The three of the sighed before each found a interestingly comfortable seat and either flopped down onto the sofa or gracefully sat on an armchair.

All they could do now was wait and see if someone found their wielder and helped him.

* * *

And someone did find him.

The medium-built man with wavy dark brown hair and faded goatee raised his gray-blue eyes towards the dark sky above him. He could sense the massive explosion of reiatsu that suddenly appeared and the faint but still there screaming he could pick up from the slight breeze.  
He got up and together with his companion he set out at a fast pace towards the source of power.

The girl beside him which had light green hair that was arranged in a very simple manner plus remnants of a bony white mask that covered her left eye and served as a hat, quickly stood and followed the older man. Her visible light pink eye focused on the expression on his face and wondered just who had caused that reiatsu outburst.  
The two of them didn't talk much but to understand each other it wasn't like they really needed words.

After all... they were parts of the same being. They were the same soul. The same being and sole that was so very much lonely that it split in two just to ease the pain that solitude caused.  
Both of them wore nothing except for a long torn and worn out piece of cloth that was dark in color.

They walked and walked and soon they came face to face with a sight that no other Arrancar could ever claim to have seen.

Up ahead, right on top of a small hill of sand, was a young boy. He was completely bare and had bright orange hair. His skin was light but the was a darker circle around his right wrist and that stretched over to the back of his hand, causing it to be covered with strange markings.  
What made it more strange was that it didn't look like it had been done by scars or anything but simply that it was _part_ of his skin.

He was screaming at the top of his lungs clutching his head with both hands and he was on his knees. He was in pain, unknowingly to the two Arrancars, because his soul was being reconstructed and reformed. In other words, it was being cut to pieces and rearranged. And that hurt, _obviously_...  
His pain was causing his reiatsu to fluctuate wildly and expand outwards to him, making every single creature in the area to feel a 'ghost pain' equivalent to his. So not only did hollows hear his screams they could also feel what he was feeling.

Immeasurable pain.

This caused the hollows in the area to flee from there and scared whatever 'good-willed' one that had the thought of approaching him. But the darker haired Arrancar was not like most hollows. He had known, and knew, pain and instead of being frightened or choosing to ignore the cries of such young... hollow? He was instead compelled to help him.

His own pain of solitude, when he was still a single entity, was fresh on his mind. So, as he would tell himself years to come, he acted on instinct.

He would swear that it had not been pity or compassion that had made him reach out towards the boy, it was not because he looked like a child, and nor was it because he too had been affected by his pain and simply wished to make it stop.  
So he would lie through his teeth and tell whoever had asked that he acted on pack instinct and that he only kept the boy because he became his responsibility and surely not because he actually grew fond of having him around...

But that was to come. Now, however, the dark haired Arrancar reached out to the young boy and grabbed him. That was when the cries abruptly stopped and the boy opened his eyes for the first time in Hueco Mundo as his 'new' him.  
And tales told about that day would always start like this:

\- _And the boy opened his eyes. Eyes wide and confused that shone with life and mystery. But those eyes were nothing short of amazing as if one could belong to the purest human, the other could be said to belong to the most powerful of hollows._

One with black sclera and golden iris and the other with white sclera and bronze colored eyes.

They stared at the older Arrancar for a few seconds before he fell unconscious due to exhaustion. The Arrancar blinked a few times to make sure he was truly awake and just looked at the now sleeping child in his arms. He felt the presence of his other half behind him and saw, through the corner of his eye, as she glanced over his shoulder to look at the small boy.

-" What are we going to do with him, Starrk? "- she asked -" We can't leave him all alone, can we?"

-" No, we can't... I guess we'll have to take him with us. "- the Arrancar called Starrk answered -" You don't mind, Lilynette?"

-" No, he's strong! "- Lilynette answered with a smile.

To most people that statement would have sounded weird or out of context but Starrk knew exactly what she was saying.  
The two Arrancars themselves were very powerful and that caused every hollow nearby to die due to their power but this boy, small and fragile looking, had managed to bear this power and didn't looked uncomfortable or with any difficulty breathing.

He could be around them without the fear of disappearing.  
Getting up and shifting the boy in his arms the two Arrancars resumed their travel. They didn't know a thing about who he was or where he had come from but to them it didn't matter.

* * *

-" Get back here! "- a tomboyish Arrancar yelled as she was running after the most annoying Arrancar in the world -" You'll see what I'll do to you after I catch you!"

-" Then why should I go back? "- the orange haired Arrancar asked in a mocking tone -" Catch me if you can, Emilou!"

-" LUCCA! "- she screamed after the other Arrancar as he took off leaving her behind effortlessly.

Laughter could be heard throughout the white fortress called Las Noches. To the annoyance of some and enjoyment of others.  
It had been seven years since Starrk had found the orange haired child and now most hollows that knew him had learned several things.

 _To never be surprised if Lucca did something seemingly impossible._

 _To never get into a prank war with him._

 _To never try to make him be respectful towards his superiors._

 _To never, Ever, disrespect or harm either Lilynette or Starrk._

 _ **To never underestimate him**._

You see, the once-before Ichigo had been sealed and locked away deep inside his soul so when the boy had woken up he had been blank. He didn't remember anything or even seemed to know what or who he was. So Lilynette, who took upon herself to declare she was his older sister/best friend/comrade, named him Lucca Starrk after a few weeks.

Why Lucca Starrk? Because she was **L** ilynette and the boy took to **Starrk** a lot faster than to her. So while her other half, Coyote Starrk, had been temporarily annoyed about his last named being used Lilynette had found ' _cute_ ' and ' _perfect_ ' the combination.  
And it really was cute and perfect as the older Arrancar became like a father figure to the young amnesiac Arrancar. _That wasn't all of a good thing, now that I think about it..._

Well, no matter...

Lucca broke all rules about what Arrancars could or couldn't do.  
Arrancars, supposedly, shouldn't be able to age but the fact that he had gone from looking like a small nine year old to a tall thirteen year old put that theory to shame.

Arrancars were supposed to have a hollow hole but he didn't, not that many knew since he covered it up pretty well. He also didn't really have a visible mask but small chunks of the bony white material that stubbornly clung to his hair. But he did materialize part of his mask as to cover for his complete hollow eye.  
That was other thing that was strange about him. Most Arrancars had both eyes seemingly human while in their sealed form but Lucca's hollow eye seemed permanent.

But that was all over looked as he belonged to the Primera Espada's fraccíon and no one wanted to piss off the Primera Espada. Yeah, he could seem like a lazy bum sometimes but he was no push over when it came to Lucca. There was a reason why none of the other Espadas hadn't killed him yet, and the pre-teen had already been there for about five years or so.

And suffice to say that after a mere two hours of being in the same room with Lucca could drive someone crazy. He was a ball of energy, though he had his lazy moments ( _thank kami_ ), and he was never still in one place.  
One minute he could be near the entrance of Las Noches and the next he was running from a group of enraged hollows near the horizon of Hueco Mundo. That or probably pissing off another Arrancar, namely trying to irke Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra was the Cuarto Espada, and he had this unbreakable poker face that remained emotionless and expressionless no matter the situation. Even chasing after the laughing Lucca that always came after a good prank.  
It will go down in Hollow history the day that he managed to trap the Arrancar in a room for about three seconds before said Arrancar pulverized said door and moved on to chase the prankster.

Luckily for the thirteen year old that there was an open window nearby that provided a perfect escape route for him because he escaped at the nick of time before the wall beside him was left in ruins.

And today was no different. He was just about to finish his _routine_ of messing with the other fraccíons when he bumped against someone.  
Looking up he faced the vulpine smiling shinigami named Ichimaru Gin, a shinigami captain.

-" Hey, it's you Gin. "- Lucca said mildly surprised -" Back already?"- he asked.

-" Yeah, Aizen's callin' for you. "- Gin said with that indirect dialect that Lucca wasn't fond of.

The pre-teen was very direct about everything he wanted to say or though so having another person expertly avoiding to respond was something that did not sit well with him. Not that he complained _too_ loudly.

-" Me? What have I done? "- Lucca asked.

Gin didn't answer but he did give him a look that signified an explicit ' _Really_?'. Gin, though he was a shinigami and Lucca was a hollow, was in good terms with him. They had surprisingly became ' _acquaintances_ ' after Lucca had tried annoying ( _and succeeding_ ) the other of Aizen's subordinates, the blind shinigami named Kaname.

It was fun the first time and even Gin laughed, or more snorted, at the display of disobedience after Kaname had order him to go call the Espada to a meeting and put his speed to good use. Though he had an earful from Starrk because Kaname had snitched about what he did to Aizen, who then ' _talked_ ' with Starrk about his ' _unnecessary_ ' behavior.

' _Well, screw him too_.'- was the boy's answer to that.

But now was not the time for me, the narrator, to be rambling about something that I'll later develop...

-" What does he want with me, Gin? "- Lucca asked when the two started to walk towards the meeting room -" And who will be there?"

-" I don' know the first one but to answer the second... "- he said -"... Could you perhaps be scared of being alone with Aizen?"

-" Afraid?! Of what? **Him**? "- Lucca spluttered -" Why would I be?"

-" You' probably the only one that can say that. "- Gin tells him, sighing -" Wonder when you' finally gain a bit of conscience to your _situation_."

Lucca went quiet and avoided to look at the silver haired shinigami.

-" I know... "- was the murmured response to that.

The two of them walked for a bit more, because Las Noches was nothing short of huge, and after a while they entered a simple room where twelve other people waited.  
There were the ten Espadas, the stuck-up Kaname, and then there was Aizen.

 _Oh, Lucca was beginning to have a bad feeling about this meeting._

-" Oh, good. You're finally here. "- was Aizen's comment on seeing him -" Now we can begin."

Lucca raised an eyebrow and mouthed to Starrk ' _What is going on?_ ' before sitting in an empty chair near the back. He belonged to a fraccíon and wasn't an Espada so why was **he** needed in a meeting?  
And Starrk wasn't freaking out so he probably wasn't going to be kicked out. Key word: Probably.

Starrk didn't answer so Lucca assumed he didn't know and Gin had already told him he didn't knew the answer. And for all of what Gin was to others, to Lucca at least, he wasn't a liar.  
Then there was Kaname, who was impassive as ever, and since he wasn't jumping up and down in glee that meant that he wasn't going to be executed.

-" Then let's begin. The operation to retrieve the Hogyoku is about to start. "- Aizen said -" Kuchiki Rukia is currently in the Living World but after we eliminate the Central 46 and take over command of the shinigami's actions, then she will be brought back to Soul Society."

-" Now, since there's nothing you can do right now, I'll leave you with the task of getting prepared." - he said -" And if you're wondering why a member of the Primera's fraccíon is here, that's because his _abilities_ are needed in this mission."

Lucca looks at Aizen like he just grew a second head.

-" My abilities? "- he asks.

-" Yes. While we take over control of Central 46 I need you to retrieve several documents for me."- he answers.

-" Can't you do that on your own? "- the boy asks.

Beside Aizen, Kaname mutters something about unruly brats and wanting to give out punishment.

-" I can but you're not doing anything important at the time, _are you_? "- he asks with that fake smile he always wears.

-" I'm not... "- Lucca answers.

-" Then it's settled. We'll leave for Soul Society once this meeting is done. You can wait outside now. "- Aizen says.

* * *

If you haven't guessed by now I'll tell you: I like long chapters.  
The markings on his hand will be explained and featured next chapter.

I'll tell more about Lucca's backstory later on. Oh, he does have his Zanpakutou(s) (shikai and bankai) and a Resurrection, but again only features and explained in later chapters.  
I warn you that I haven't even finished, or reached half for that matter, on the series. I haven't watched beyond the Rescue of Rukia and I don't plan on doing it any time soon mostly because I don't want to change things to accommodate the canon story.

There will not be any romance on this fanfiction or pairings, though I might hint or do some fluff, if I can. There will be different points of view later on.

If you want to know how Kaien's Zanpakutou spirit, Nejibana, looks like in my fanfic ask me for the link.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for all those who Favorited and Followed my story so far. You're awesome!

* * *

Lucca wasn't pacing. He wasn't!  
Walking back and forth along the hallway leading to the meeting room was something everyone did! (Though most for different reasons...)  
And if they didn't then they were the ones that were doing everything wrong in the first place.  
But still, he wasn't pacing.

He wasn't frustrated or nervous and he sure as hell wasn't scared of entering Soul Society.  
A place filled with shinigamis... The same people that would annihilate them if given the chance. Hell, the place looked more like a factory of killing machines than anything else.

Or that was what every Hollow and Arrancar thought, anyway... Aizen would be extremely vague about the whole place, forget about asking Kaname-teme, and asking Gin was out of the question due to his creepy tendencies to scare the heck out of Lucca with his disturbing stories.  
So, long story short, the young Arrancar knew nothing of what to expect in Soul Society.

He could tell that part of him was itching to go there, though he couldn't tell if it was that weird part of him that liked shinigamis or the blood-lustful part of him that was hollowfied.  
Plus there was that mental-image at the back of his mind of serialized Gin's and stuck-up Kanames that sent a chill down his spine. Even if he had the urge of letting out peals of laughter. But not now...

At that precise moment Lucca just had a sense of foreboding that just would not leave!

It felt like grief, pain and anger all compressed together and yet... yet there was also a feeling of longing. Like he wanted to return there.  
And that confused the pre-teen because he was certain that he had never, ever, been in Soul Society before he woke up in Hueco Mundo. So he had no idea where those feeling came from.

He had tried to find out by forcing himself to remember his past memories or what had happened before Starrk found him. But, ultimately, the result was always the same... Excruciating pain and his power would, violently, rampage on it's own like it was alive and sentient.  
After a few tries Starrk had forbidden him from even trying ever again. Whether it was to save Las Noches from crumbling under the pressure of his reiatsu or whether he was worried about what that kind of strain put on Lucca was up for debate.

And Lucca had to agree with him on not trying to remember. because _they_ had started as soon as he forced his memories gates to open, forcefully, against his mind's protests.  
They would appear from time to time, starting to become more frequent, and they scared Lucca. Like, they left him panting and shaking every time he had them. They weren't simple nightmares but more like recollections of past events.  
But never from his perspective...

At first it was like a gentle breeze around him but soon they began to turn into thoughts and ghost feelings that plagued him. They were becoming stronger too.  
The shock of being hit with something inside those nightmares was no longer enough to jolt him back into reality.  
Now, he had to experience the whole thing before waking up.

That or something truly frightened him enough to break whatever was keeping him stuck there.  
After so many of those nightmares, Lucca had the faint feeling that it was someone that was holding him in place, restricting his movements and forcing him to watch all those recollections.

Starrk had asked him about a few times when he thought Lilynette was distracted but Lucca could never give him a straight answer. If he told him that he was alright then he would be lying, something he didn't want to do to Starrk, but if he told him that he was having such dreams then he would have to endure the prolonged question&answer session that he truly wanted to avoid.

Finally having mentally exhausted himself, Lucca leaned against the wall opposite to the meeting rooms door and sighed. He decided to patiently wait until the meeting was over. With a tired expression and a slight frown on his face, he looked down to his gloved right hand.  
The dark glove itself was completely normal, something Lucca had scavenged during one of his irregular trips to the Living World. Starrk and Lilynette would be furious if they caught him, that stuck-up Kaname would love nothing more than to rush back to Aizen and ask (*cough*beg*cough*) to punish him and Gin would tell him a few words of 'advice' and direct to him that disturbing grin of his.

So, to put it plainly, Lucca had to sneak out of Hueco Mundo and go to the Living World along side other hollows. And since he couldn't open his own garganta, lest wanting to be caught returning back to Hueco Mundo, he would have to wait until another group of hollows to appear and use their garganta.  
Lucca had the faint feeling that Aizen expected something to happen whenever Lucca went to the Living World but even if Lucca was smart... he believed that he would have to be insane to figure out what Aizen was thinking.  
Or plotting...

The whole act of leaving undetected wasn't the hard part, his 'abilities' made him pretty much invisible to any radar, the hard part was trying to control those abilities.  
When they first appeared, they had scared the hell out of the young Arrancar. Merely touching something would render it into reishi and Lucca had no idea how to change it back. Or if that was even possible.

But covering the hand would help in preventing it from accidentally activating.  
Lucca swore that when he first activated his powers that there had been a slightly mocking but bland voice that had whispered to him: "The price is Power" into his ear but when he turned around there was no one there.

And though Lucca had to agree that the abilities gave him power they were, in the end, a curse.  
I mean who, in their right mind, would like to have some kind of... thing... imprinted onto their hand that could potentially come to harm it's family or allies?

Lucca couldn't disagree with the reasonings of Aizen about having Lucca break into where they kept those documents and take them out unnoticed but at the same time... Lucca resented them a bit.  
Gin's words about 'knowing his situation' weren't helpful either in that specific matter. He knew. Lucca knew that he couldn't go against Aizen's orders unless he wanted to bring danger towards Starrk and Lilynette.

And once again, the memory of first meeting Aizen resurfaced...

* * *

They had been wandering in the endless white sands of Hueco Mundo for a while now.  
Lucca still wasn't speaking in full sentences and he still moved almost mechanically but he was slowly returning gestures of affection and starting to act like a normal kid.

Well... as normal as an Arrancar with a complete hollowfied eye and no memories of what happened and no sword could be considered normal.

Starrk had been wondering if they should change directions or if they kept going the way they were walking when he heard a voice.  
Like a calm and collected voice that no one expected to hear in Hueco Mundo. Starrk, even if he denied it every single time, grabbed both Lucca and Lilynette and pushed them behind him.

Or tried to anyway... Lucca had since disappeared somewhere and only Lilynette was with him. The kid had been doing that recently, going off on his own. He always found his way back and had that goofy air around him that made it seem like he had just told the joke of the year.  
Starrk never really understood the reason why he took off, and was always surprised by it. Even more so if nobody noticed him doing it. The reason why that was near impossible was because Lilynette rarely let him out of her sight.

And when she was asleep or distracted, Starrk would be on lookout in case something happened.  
Looking back, it could be that perhaps Lucca had always been using his abilities unconsciously up until that day. Why that day in particular?  
I'll let you in on a secret...

Lucca remembered.

Only little snippets of tiny memories but he remembered.  
And he feared... and somehow he ended up in the situation he was in. Aizen didn't really want Starrk and, truthfully, he hadn't been looking for Starrk that day. He had been looking for Lucca.

Somehow he **knew** that Lucca would be around that area since day one and he had been searching for the boy. It had been made more difficult for the fact that Starrk was constantly walking in circles in Hueco Mundo, so tracking them down was not easy.  
But he found them anyways...

He straight out told Starrk that he wanted Lucca but the older Arrancar refused. They were shinigamis and Lucca, at that point, was already family. They weren't going to give them away without a fight.  
Lucca hadn't been with them right there when the fight started but he was the one that ended it.

When he laid eyes on the white haori of Aizen images flashed before his eyes.  
A white haired man asking him something. The man's smiling face made Lucca's heart hurt a lot. And he heard a scream... K... Kai...

Kai? Who was that? Who was screaming? Somehow the name feels incomplete...

Another image flashed...

Fighting... Someone was fighting. The white haori was turning red from the multitude of cuts that the person had. But this one didn't have white hair. His hair is short and spiky and dark.  
It's raining...

And just as the final blow approaches, rods of bright energy charge towards the two.  
There's a young girl down bellow in the street. She is wielding a bow and arrow made of energy. It's so bright...  
Yet it hurts... Why does it hurt?

-" You~ fell~ for it~! "- a sweet and lighthearted voice says.

The world flashes again and white surrounds me...

Me?  
Was it me that had been fighting?  
Was it me that had seen the white haired man?

Was I Kai?  
No... was my name White?

The name sounds familiar but sort of distant... Like it refers to a part of me but not my whole being.  
Could I be Kai and White at the same time? No...  
That's impossible! Because...

Because what? What proves to me that I'm not them?

Because...

You don't remember a thing before waking up here! And that Starrk guy told you that you were screaming. Why were you screaming?

Why was I screaming?

Maybe because you lost that fight... Maybe because someone yelled your name...

No, that can't be...

Why?

Because...

Because...

Because... **I** **am Lucca.**

The fight between Starrk and the mysterious shinigami was stopped by Lucca. How?  
He appeared seamlessly out of thin air and sent a wave of power so great it tossed the two of them in opposite directions. But what the two previously fighting wouldn't be able to forget was his expression.

Both eyes were wide open in shock, tears spilling over his face and he was trembling. And just like when he first awoke in Hueco Mundo, Lucca screamed.  
His power flared up and exploded. The clearing of sand that they had been, just moments before, standing on disappeared and replaced with an enormous section of glass.  
It spread like waves across the sand, wavy and bright under the dark starless sky.

And before anyone could say or do anything, Lucca collapsed.

He would later wake up in Las Noches, months later. Apparently he had nearly exhausted all of his reiatsu with that 'small trick'. And some time after he was able to move around Las Noches and met Aizen again, he learned his 'situation'.

If he tried to run away; if he tried to go against Aizen and his orders... Starrk and Lilynette would be the ones to pay for it. Because Aizen only brought them as a means as to keep him chained into his service.  
Placing Starrk as an Espada was because Lucca refused any attempt to place him as one.  
And the young Arrancar truly believed he had escaped with a slap on the wrist kind of proposal on that matter.

* * *

He had pondered it... How could've Aizen had known about him?  
He had asked Gin but the vulpine shinigami had refused to answer him. Well, he didn't openly refused. He simply, and masterly, avoided that topic as the plague.  
Not only him but anyone that seemed to have an inkling on who he was.

It was upsetting and a pain in the arse but without any proof that they really knew what was going on he had no way of confronting them about it.

Lucca was still looking at his gloved hand and slowly pondered whether or not to take the glove off. He glanced at the door and intuition told him that it wasn't going to be over so soon.  
Reaching with his left hand he removed the dark glove and flexed his fingers.

On the back of his hand, with a darker shade of his skin tone, was a circle. Inside that circle was some sort of cross and then, around the five points of that 'cross', were different symbols.  
There was also a string like line around his wrist that connected with that marking on the back of his hand but what really stood out in all of that was the lone symbol in the center of the cross.

That symbol, somehow, brought forth a sense of dread and peace. A contrasting mix of emotions that could not be described.  
Also, that symbol was the only one that Lucca had an idea of what it meant.

 **Creation**.

The symbols all looked alike, like pieces of a puzzle that was yet to be revealed. Though they felt different.  
Some felt cold to the touch and others just... were there.  
Lucca's mind became clouded again. Too many thoughts were running at the same time and an headache was already starting.

-" You really don't know any better do you? "- a girlish voice asked from right beside him.

Lucca jolted and turned his head so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. Lilynette looked unimpressed at that action and slumped against the wall beside him.  
She stood a hand shorter than him. A topic she always wanted to avoid because that only reminded her that when he first appeared Lucca was more than a head shorter than her.

And now he was taller.  
He had grown.

He didn't say anything to her but basked in the comfort of her presence next to him. They were brothers. Family. Starrk was like a father to Lucca but an older brother type figure to Lilynette.  
She didn't mind it at all and actually found a lot of entertainment pitching the two of them against each other in youthful banter when the two butted heads. She was also the first one to realize that, bellow all that cold exterior and mechanical movements, Lucca was broken.

By what or by whom neither her or Starrk could figure out but broken he was.  
The way he clung to certain aspects or routines made it clear that he liked a constant atmosphere and disliked changes. Lilynette knew of one particular instance, when Lucca was still a bit disoriented from him coma, how he freaked out when he saw one other Espada and how he held onto Starrk like he was his lifeline.

It was true that he grew used to it but the fear in his eyes had terrified her. Why was he so scared?  
Later on it hit her that, perhaps, it hadn't been the Espada that scared him but whatever he had seen while in his coma.

-" Something happened, right? "- Lilynette asked the pre-teen.

-" Yes. "- was Lucca's only answer.

-" What's wrong? Will you tell me? "- she asked.

-" I don't want to make you worry. I'll tell you when I get back, okay? "- Lucca asked.

It was not okay. Lilynette didn't want to be told later she wanted to know now.  
But his voice and his attitude was submissive and slightly pleading.

-" Fine... But you better be back soon or so help me... "- Lilynette said.

-" I promise! I'll be back before you know it! "- Lucca smiled.

-" You better... "- the Arrancar muttered.

Nothing else was said between the two as they quietly waited for the meeting to be over.  
And when it was over and the other Espada were leaving the room, Starrk walked to their side and placed his hand on the young arrancar's head. There were no tears or goodbyes but rather a silent act of affection that said 'see you later'.

That didn't mean that the feelings of hurt and sadness vanished, though...  
The feelings of longing and sadness and anger only intensified when Aizen opened a seikaimon.

It was about to start. The plan that Aizen had spent centuries creating.  
He wasn't scared. He wasn't worried. He was...

* * *

The three shinigamis and the young Arrancar slowly crossed the seikaimon. Kaname and Gin were just as impassive as ever and they walked a bit further ahead than Aizen, who Lucca was walking beside of.  
They didn't say anything to one another but it was that silence that was growing more and more uncomfortable by the second. Deciding to just get it over with Lucca spoke first:

-" The documents you want are in the 12th division, right? "- he asked.

Lucca could see Kaname practically seething to teach him how to show respect for his superiors. Gin just gave his normal, sinister, laugh and Aizen just kept his smile and demeanor that he always had.

-" Correct. Your job is to simply enter the 12th division barracks, retrieve the documents and leave them in the Central 46 room. "- Aizen told him.

-" Central 46? Are they working with you? "- Lucca asked confused.

He had learned a bit about Soul Society from Gin and he knew that Central 46 were the ones that gave orders to the Gotei 13. So why would they be helping attack Soul Society?

-" They're not, but that is something you don't have to worry about. "- Aizen answered -" Just retrieve the documents and leave them there, understood?"

-" Understood. "- Lucca answered.

He looked ahead and saw that they were almost at the end of the seikaimon. Well, this was as good of a moment as it could get...  
Removing the glove from his hand, as he had put it on before leaving, he activated the only 'ability' he had control over, the "Divide".  
It was something that few knew about and that even less could access or use it.

Think of the Divide as something close to a network or a borderline that connects everything together. It's made entirely of reishi and allows one to seamlessly travel anywhere one wants. There's a catch, though. One cannot enter it without a key, that's the rule. And that key is something that no one knows how to get.

Even the young arrancar or the genius traitor captain did not know what the Divide really was, to them it simply looked like a neat trick to pull on the shinigamis.

Oh, well. No matter...

The Divide works just like a seikaimon or a garganta, with one small difference. While on the other two the path you take is set inside of the Divide you can choose your own path. Or no path at all and simply wander inside of it.

There are a few that can naturally enter the Divide but not that many are willing to reveal it. I mean, you discover that there is the equivalent of a secret route to every single dimension and you're just gonna let it slip? No, most that use or know of the Divide keep it to themselves as a way to protect their own hide.

But back to the point...

Lucca activated the only ability he had perfected control over and seemingly vanished in a flutter of reishi. Entering the Divide was like placing a filter over your eyes, the world would lose all it's color and everything seemed to move slower than you. But with colors or not, Soul Society was a breathtaking view.

When he exited the portal, Lucca was stunned at what he saw. Part of him, that was still childish and not really sixteen yet, was really surprised at not seeing anything that might've looked like a place where shinigami are mass produced.

The other part of him was split between awe and content.

 _Nothing had changed since back then..._

Wait, what? Where did that thought come from? I've never been here before in my life!  
Unseen by the three traitors, Lucca furrowed his brow. There were so many questions that he wanted answers to.

-" The faster you go look for the documents, the faster you can go back _home_. "- Aizen said, adding a slight edge in the end.

I was not going to reply, nor was I going to be standing around them doing nothing. I needed to find the 12th division first, then I'd have to enter their storage room or something and find the papers.  
Easy... right?

* * *

Not easy!  
Stupid Aizen and his damned orders! The guy drags me into the worst possible place and doesn't even tell me where the division is! Two hours!  
I took two hours to find the place and half an hour to enter it without being detected by the various machines and equipment that was housed there.

There were two close calls and I dearly hoped that there would not be any third.  
When I first walked in, not only was my presence already masked by the Divide, I had to suppress my reiatsu even more or risk that clown like captain sensing me. And from his mutters of dissection and studying other specimens, I wasn't that inclined on letting that happen.

I mean, I already had to deal with Szayel in Las Noches. I didn't need another psychopathic serial scientist after me for experiments...

But the second time was when I was trying to enter the place where every single file was kept. The damn door was protected by this reader thingy that gave out this loud and annoying alarm whenever any type of foreign reiatsu passed through it. So, of course, me not knowing about that tiny piece of information that might've saved me a headache, triggered the alarm.

Thankfully, since they couldn't see me, they ended up thinking it was a false alarm but the captain didn't seem all that convinced himself. Rambling to himself that there was no way that it was broken or malfunctioning.  
And I had to hand it to him, if you create something that can sense me, even when I'm in the Divide, that's pretty cool.

'Let's hope, Szayel doesn't learn about him or his inventions.'- a small voice inside of me said.  
It sounded so far off that I could barely make out what it said.

Finally after many hard times, I broke into the storage room. And guess what I saw.  
Can you guess? Nothing at all?  
Well, I'll give you a clue.

Papers, files, documents... You name it. Piled up to the ceiling.  
And then there were boxes, filled to the brim with even more papers.

I wanted to murder Aizen at that point.

* * *

Apart from the snoring the room was silent.  
There were no jokes or banter that could be heard and the room itself felt colder.  
The green haired arrancar looked up to the other half of her soul. Starrk was sprawled all over a pile of pillows that served as a makeshift bed, snoring lightly.  
Somehow Lilynette knew that those snores were fake.

How could he be so relaxed after what they had been told?

 _Aizen_ had taken Lucca to _Soul Society_. She had never really trusted or liked the guy but taking her brother off to a place that meant certain death was... well, unbelievable.  
Starrk had been pacing for a while before wearily sighing and lying down on the pillows.

Lilynette felt bad, horrible, about the situation but she could only imagine what Starrk must've been thinking or feeling.  
To not being able to refuse what he ordered and yet wanting to.

She could only hope Lucca would be back safe and sound. And quickly too.

* * *

The papers were horrible to look for.

There was just so many documents about stuff that made Lucca cringe when he played eyes on just the first lines of them that the young arrancar was trying to finish this as quickly as he could. The only piece of advice that they had given him was that he should start with the older records first and then move on onwards towards the newest that there were there.

He had found a few mentioning what Aizen wanted but none showed the information he wanted in particular. It didn't help that there were always one or two shinigami entering and exiting the storage room, carrying other papers or boxes of files.

Though, the whole situation wasn't entirely fruitless. Lucca had found a few papers talking about quincies that had caught his attention. A spark of uncharacteristic interest surged through him when he read the title of the document but soon that interest turned into disgust as he, unfortunately, read the whole document.

Forget about serialized Gins and Kanames... Soul Society had his own version of Szayel when he was caught up in a project. The atrocities that were written on those papers almost caused Lucca to laugh sarcastically at their attitudes.

If they were monsters just because they had once been hollows, what did that make of them? Apart from Noitra or Szayel or Barragan or Yammy, the other Arrancar had at least the grace of killing but not prolonging their victims suffering.

Science was scary... One more reason why Lucca never went anywhere near the labs as to not be mistaken by having a bit of curiosity of what was inside.

Hours passed and Lucca felt as if he was going to fall asleep any moment now. He had to find somewhere to exit the Divide and rest.

And there were only three options: Gin, Kanames or Aizen.  
Not a hard decision, since he hated one's guts, could not stand another and was only mildly annoyed by the remaining one.

So Gin it is!  
And to Lucca's luck, since he already knew his reiatsu, it wouldn't take hours to find where he was. As it was the vulpine faced shinigami was still in his office, inside of his division.  
Unfortunately he was not alone. There was a blond guy with the lieutenant badge on his arm with Gin in the room.

Lucca looked through the window and considered his options...

Well, the window was open. Neither Gin or the blond had sensed him. And there was the perfect opportunity to try and scare Gin.

 _No, think of the mission! This is not time for games!_

I don't want to worry about the mission. What's wrong with a harmless prank?

 _What if he attacks you or ruins your cover?_

He won't. At most, he will just shudder or something.

 _And if by accident he or the other guy bumps into you?_

He won't.

 _Really? You really believe that?_

Yeah.

 _Would you bet your life on that?_

On Gin's hand and reactions? Nope, not in a million years. I would not trust him to care for my pet rock, so my life was out of question.

 _So you don't trust Gin with your life. But you'll trust him with the outcome of the mission? One that could potentially come back to bite you, in case something goes south._

Yeah.

 _Unbelievable..._

Oh, yeah. I've been meaning to ask you, tiny voice inside my head. But who are you?

 _Nothing of importance right now._

Really?

 _Really._

You sure?

... (silence) ...

You there? Hello!

... (silence) ...

Rude.

Deciding just to get it over with. I jumped through the window and not waiting for Gin to realize I was there, lightly touched my cold fingers on the back of his neck.  
The reaction was instantaneous.

Gin bristled and for a nano-second his grin vanished and was replace with a scowl. Thankfully the blond was with his back turned or he might've gotten the scare of his life. And Lucca tried not to wince at the tiny jab of murderous intent that poked him.

-" Just you wait... "- he muttered under his breath.

-" Did you say something, taichou? "- the blond asked, turning to face his captain.

-" Nah, everything's fine, Kira-kun. "- Gin answered lightly -" But you can go home now, leave the rest of the paperwork for tomorrow."

-" Of course, taichou. See you tomorrow. "- The blond, Kira?, said before leaving the office.

As soon as the door closed, Gin jumped from his seat, closed the window and blinds and proceeded to add a privacy kido to the room.

-" Out of that forsaken technique, now! "- Gin literally barked at him.

I was in trouble.

I exited the Divide and colors returned to my world, as well as the time of movements. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep the smirk of a well done prank off my face and I saw, with mild trepidation, how Gin's eyes narrowed even further.

-" Any explanations before I teach you a lesson? "- he asked. Or demanded, it went both ways.

-" Ahahaha... Gin, you know. Missions are so boring and I just couldn't find those documents and then I came here looking for you and there was this perfect opportunity. And you should've seen your reaction! It was the equivalent of jumping out of your skin by my standards! "- I answered.

And once again his grin vanished and a scowl appeared. Worse, he opened his eyes and I cursed my mouth for simply saying all that much. At this point, I was sweating a bit. Gin could be scary when he wanted to and I guess I screwed up to by doing that prank.

 _Told you._

... Shut up...

I swear I almost hear the voice crackle and even if it didn't, I imagined myself glaring daggers at it.

-" I should tell Aizen-sama about that little trick you played, ya'know... "- Gin said.

-" I know... Do you have to? "- Lucca asked.

-" I don't. But I do have to warn you that this is a one time thing, "-Gin told him -", and if you dare to repeat it, I will personally drag you to him. "

-" Understood. "- Lucca answered with a calm expression. Inwardly, though, he slumped in relief. Having a 'conversation' with Aizen after doing a prank was never a good thing.

Not that he ever hurt him. But sitting in a chair and have him stare at you with those unreadable eyes and that aura of eminent danger to him was something Lucca didn't want to repeat.  
At least not after seventy something times.

On the bright side, 'mild' killing intent didn't made him freeze on the spot.

-" What did you come here for anyway? "- Gin asked, his eyes closed into slits again.

Lucca mumbled an answer.

-" Please repeat that. A bit louder this time. "- Gin huffed.

-" I need a place to stay in order to cool off before going back into the Divide. "- Lucca muttered.

-" Oh? So not only did you come here to prank me but also to ask me a favor, huh? "- Gin said.

-" No, I came here to ask you a favor. "- Lucca retorted -" Scaring you was a bonus..."

-" You pranked me. Not 'scared' me. "- Gin told him.

Lucca looked at him and, with a grin, raised his eyebrow.

-" Don't look cocky, brat. "- Gin told him as he bonked his fist on Lucca's head -" To me it's as if you're still in your diapers."

Lucca spluttered as he tried to find a retort to Gin's comment.  
As he was he missed the small sad and longing look that flashed on Gin's eyes before he lead the young arrancar out of his office.

'Kaien... '- he thought.

* * *

A younger looking Gin was just walking down the hallway inside his division when he suddenly bumped into someone. Looking up he faced the 13th Division Lieutenant, his spiky raven black hair contrasted with his aqua green eyes, who looked at Gin with a mixture of surprise and annoyance.

-" Ahh, it's you... "- Gin muttered without thought.

He thought he saw a vein pop on the lieutenant's forehead.

-" What the hell do you mean: 'Ahh, it's you'?! "- the man said as he bonked his fist on the third seat's head -" Don't get cocky with me brat!"

* * *

Lucca was still massaging the bump he had on his head as he was lying down inside Gin's wardrobe. Hiding behind a few layers of clothes and other pieces of cloth. First thing he noticed was that while in Hueco Mundo everyone wore white, here everyone wore black. He thought it was just because it was easier to blend in with the scenery but seeing as it was simply to make a statement, Lucca planned a trip to the living world in order to find a new style.

Truth be told he never had much passion with the white shikakusho that both Aizen and Starrk made him wear. A deep part of himself thought of the clothes as old fashioned and stuffy.  
The other part of himself called him delusional and argued that this clothes was simply in the wrong tones.

Deciding to get some sleep, Lucca closed his eyes and turned to his side.  
Soon darkness surrounded him and he lost himself to the deep dark and empty end that was his head.

Funny way to put it, actually... Sometimes he thought as if he was standing on a cliff and had to decide whether to jump or not. _The brave are rewarded while the cowards are forgotten._

Lucca couldn't see the passage of time while surrounded by that darkness but, like all the times before, he just sat down and waited. Nothing would come and as he couldn't see a thing he just let himself succumb to the lonesome feeling that he was alone.

 _You are not alone._

Lucca looked up to where he thought he heard the voice.

 _Stand up._

Lucca remained still.

 _STAND UP!_

Wind blasted against Lucca's back with so much strength it threw Lucca against the floor.  
Lucca rose to his feet and looked around. This had never happened before.

 _Look forward!_

Lucca decided to do as he was told.

 _Go forward!_

Lucca started walking. He walked for a bit in the complete darkness until something made him stop.  
He couldn't see but he could feel that the ground ended in front of him. This was the edge of the abyss. He didn't dare to move another step.  
His heartbeat was pounding hard against his chest and he trembled slightly.

 _What is there to fear?_

I'll fall.

 _Cast off your fear!_

I'll fall if I walk forward.

 _Never stand still... GO FORWARD!_

I will not. I will fall. It's best to turn back.

 _Retreat and you will age..._

I can't... I' fall.

 _Hesitate and you will die!_

No...

 _GO FORWARD!_

No... I don't want to...

 _NEVER HESITATE! YOU ARE NOT ALONE!_

It felt as if there was suddenly a bright light in front of him. And he felt their presence.  
The presence of those he could not remember off but were always there.  
The presence of those he met and cherished.

 _Lilynette..._

 _Starrk..._

In the complete darkness, Lucca gave the final step towards the abyss.

He plunged into the darkness.

 **He was falling...**

* * *

Gin was out of his bed and activating the privacy seals before he was even aware he was doing it. He opened the wardrobe door and saw, with wide and shocked eyes, as Lucca's reiatsu flared up and plunged without order.  
It was fluctuating and the expression on his face was one of suffering.

-" Shit... He's awakening. "- Gin muttered.

Aizen had told him in private, together with Kaname, that bringing Lucca to Soul Society was because of several reasons.

First, it was true that he was more qualified to find the documents.

Secondly, after that was done he was to be sent to the living world in order to find and assure that Rukia was brought back.

Finally, it was to awaken his zanpakutou.

Unlike all Arrancars like him, Lucca didn't have a zanpakutou. He had no weapon and showed no signs of even being aware of his sword.

Aizen attributed this to the fact that he had no memory of who he was. And since he needed to know his soul and enter his inner world, which was influenced by his memories and such, it was impossible to access it without knowing who he was.

And he believed that the reiatsu existing in Soul Society was perfect to make him remember.  
Gin hated when the genius bastard was right...

So now, he had a few minutes before a raging shinigami reincarnated human turned hollow and evolved into Arrancar was set loose inside his room. The perfect way to waste away his night.

He would kill the devious bastard, _slowly,_ when he back stabbed him.

* * *

 _Infinite_ _darkness._  
That was all that surrounded me.  
 _Silence._ Nothing could be heard.  
My own heartbeat seemed to have melted with the static silence.

I was alone. No matter what the voice said.  
After all what, possibly, could a disembodied voice know at all?

 _You are not alone. I've told you time and time again._

Who are you?

 _You know my name. How many times must I strain my voice so it will reach you?_

What do you mean? I don't know you.

 _*rueful chuckles*... If you, of all people, don't know me. Then who does?_

Why me?

 _Because no one else in this world knows me better than you._

If I do, then I don't remember... I'm sorry.

 _Why are you apologizing?_

I... I don't know you. I have forgotten.

 _Then remember!_

I...

 _Remember what you have forgotten. Only then can my voice truly be reach you._

I'm sorry... I don't want to remember.

If I could cry, I would've. It was sad that the only thing that I truly lacked was something I didn't want.  
The voice did not say anything else and I thought that I might've angered it, somehow.

 _Why?_

A new voice called out to me.

Because I don't want to forget who I am.

 _How can you forget who you are by remembering?_

If I remember... then I won't be able to remain as I am right now...

 _And so you don't want to remember?_

No... I don't want to disappear ... I don't want to be replaced... I'm sorry. But unless I am as I am right now... I won't allow myself to remember.

 _Then... if you could choose who to be after remembering... Would you allow yourself to remember us?_

Would I?

Retreat and you will age... Hesitate and you will die...

You are not alone.

You are the King.

Yes... I would.

All the darkness simply vanished and was replaced with a blinding bright white. It was warm and not cold like it was before.  
My eyes opened tentatively but closed soon after. It was so bright!  
I blinked a few times before being able to see clearly.

Not much to see, truthfully.

There wasn't anything around me. Just white. No one was there but I could feel their presences. Could I not see them if I had no memories of them?

 _Who are you?_

Me?

 _What is your name?_

I am...

 **Lucca**...

 **Kai**... **e**... **n**...

 **White**...

My mind twisted and turned as if something was being ripped apart inside. Once again, right before my eyes, memories flashed.  
Tears sprung in my eyes and I cried.

Out of _misery_...

Out of _pain_...

Out of _longing_...

Out of _sadness_...

Out of _anger_...

 _I had died._

 _I had lived._

 _I had been created._

 _I had killed._

I was...

Shiba Kaien... a shinigami, a once upon a time lieutenant of the 13th.

White... a hollow originated from shinigami souls created by Aizen.

Kurosaki Ichigo... a human and shinigami hybrid.

I saw before my eyes my family, both old and new, smiling.  
But I couldn't return the gesture. I trembled and fell to my knees.

Or would've, had it not been the steady hand the held me in place. I saw them materialize.  
A tall and lean man with a long billowing coat, looking at me with pride. The young bleached with teenager that I should've looked like had I not died, his grin looked malicious but there was no mistake in the longing of his eyes.  
Finally there was a young woman with long aqua hair and blue crystalline eyes. She was crying and before I knew it, I found myself being hugged by her.

-" Kaien... You're finally back... "- she said as she held onto me.

-" Took ya sweet time, didn't'cha, King?"- the bleached teenager said, his hand never leaving my shoulder.

-" True, you were most stubborn in ignoring our attempts of calling you back."- the old man said.

I remained silent as I watched them.

 **Nejibana**...

 **Zangetsu**...

They were right there.

They had been right there all along! They had never left me!  
I had forgotten them, everything... everyone...

 _I didn't regret it._

It was a strange feeling knowing you were the cause of their tears and sadness and longing and yet knew that, if given the choice, you would make the same decision.  
Then it hit me.

-" How come you're still here? "- I asked.

They looked at me.

-" What do you mean? "- Old man Zangetsu asked.

-" I died, so Nejibana should've disappeared... same as you."- I answered.

-" We don't know. I was the first to wake up. Then the old man and then the psychotic lunatic at your side. "- Nejibana told me.

I frowned. What was going on?

-" I died... "- I told them.

-" You're still here! You're still Kaien! "- Nejibana shouted.

-" He's Ichigo. "- Old man said -" Shiba Kaien died."

-" He came back! He's not dead."- Nejibana told him.

-" He is. "- I told them, causing them to look at me, shocked-" They both are."

-" What do you mean, King? "- Zangetsu asked.

-" It's my choice. My decision. My rule. "- I told them -" I died... in all my lives except one."

-" Then... "- Nejibana began.

-" Yes, flower. "- I told her -" I am not Kaien and I am not Ichigo, not anymore."

 _My name is Lucca..._

* * *

In a isolated corner of his soul, a lonely and ancient being awoken.

-" Ah... About time you rose... **Creation**. "- it's voice echoed.  
In front of it, a _key_ glowed.

* * *

Lucca's hand suddenly shot up, grabbing Gin's extended arm.  
Pain lurched through him as his uncovered right hand touched Gin's bare skin.

It burned... As if something was being pressed onto him.

Blurry and unfocused eyes noticed that it was morning. He felt tired and aching.

-" Well, look at who finally decided to wake up. "- Gin spoke with a cheerful tone of voice.

Inwardly he was slumping in relief. His reiatsu had stopped fluctuating and since he was awake then Gin couldn't be held responsible for him not materializing a sword.  
Which caused him to wonder if he had remembered at all.

-" Ya' remember your name? "- Gin asked, bracing for the answer.

 _Lie, don't tell him you remember anything!_  
 _If you do, then Aizen will know. You can't let Aizen win this conflict. He will destroy everything._

-" Lucca. "- he answered -" Did you hit your head or something Gin?"

-" Just making sure, ya' didn't forget everything again."- Gin joked.

It hadn't worked. Oh, he was going to love telling that to Aizen. He cringed.

-" 'Kay, the sun's up so enter that blasted thing and go look for the damned documents to give to Aizen."- Gin ordered.

-" Yeah, yeah. "- Lucca muttered as he got up and activated the Divide.

Dissolving into reishi and losing all sense of color later and he was face to face with his zanpakutous.  
He blinked.

-" The hell are you doing here?! "- he shouted.

-" _We thought you would want some company while in here._ "- Nejibana told him.

-" **Surprised, King?** "- Zangetsu asked.

-" That's an understatement, Zangetsu... "- Lucca muttered.

-" _I told you to warn him first._ "- Old man said.

-" **Where's the fun in that?** "- Zangetsu asked.

-" _It's not supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be proper._ "- the old man told him.

-" **Wet blanket...** "- both Zangetsu and Nejibana muttered.

-" _Hollows..._ "- Old man shook his head.

-" Hey, I resent that! "- Lucca piped up.

All three spirits looked at him.

-" You're a quincy, hollow, shinigami and a former human and that's what you resent?"- Zangetsu joked.

-" Shut up... "- he said embarrassed.

Deciding to get a move on, Lucca walked back towards the 12th Division. This time his eyes were not seeing a place filled with shinigami but his former home.  
 _'If I managed to find those papers quickly, I'm going to look for taichou.'_

* * *

Okay, that's a wrap for today!  
Slightly shorter chapter this time, but have fun trying to find hidden messages.  
Again, I'll say that if you want to see how Nejibana looks like, ask me for the link.

Please follow, favorite and review! Have a good time reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, first of all... Seven reviews total. Three new ones in a single day. You guys are seriously awesome and expertly able to get me to stop brooding and start writing a new chapter, aren't you?  
So, I read them and I have to tell you guest that I will continue this fanfiction until the end, when that is I don't know. Especially since the canon isn't even over yet!  
Though I'm a little put out that no one, as of yet, has commented on the snippets of very important information and spoilers that I placed in the last chapter.

Fun time reading the chapter!

(8/27/15)- I had a terrible time writing this chapter and I finally just gave up and decided to write it like this. **A fair warning to you: I am usually that type of person that writes really intriguing plot twists that are only explained at the end!** But I promise that there is method in my madness.  
Now, I am currently trying different types of explanations as to what I am doing, and attempting as to take a more mathematical approach to it. So sorry if it is too confusing. **Feel free to ask me anything.**

* * *

Lucca walked back to the 12th division in the company of his zanpakutou spirits. It was actually the first time he had met either Zangetsu, if he was correct than they would have been his zanpakutou if he had not died. He could tell they belonged to 'Ichigo' because that's what the aura around them seem to tell him. If he accessed Kaien's memories he could clearly remember Nejibana.

Like how they met and how she would constantly annoy him until he could finally hear her voice. But he feverishly stumped out trying to remember anything because of the other things he remembered.

Miyako...

A sob escaped my lips and I felt Nejibana pressing closer to me.  
I gave her a small grimace. Even to me it felt forced. Maybe remembering was not that great of a choice after all...  
There was a small huff and I looked over my shoulder to see Zangetsu frowning at me, while the Old Man had this slight air of disappointment around him.

It was strange to see the two sword spirits contrasting so much with one another.  
I found Zangetsu presence something alike to Nejibana's but the Old Man's... I wasn't so sure.

There was something grating in the back of my mind that I just couldn't not put my finger on.

Deciding to leave it be unless I actually remembered what it was, I focused on finding what Aizen had requested. Back to that hell hole of paperwork.  
Unbidden memories of paperwork on top of his desk made the Kaien part of his soul to shudder.

 _'Even in death I can't get away from it...'_ Lucca thought with sarcastic humor.

-" You should look for the papers somewhere else other than the division's storage."- the Old man said.

-" What? "- Lucca asked.

-" You think whatever Aizen wants, which can't be anything good, is open to the public?"- he answered.

Lucca blinked.

-" I hadn't thought of that..."- he bleakly said.

Both Zangetsu and Nejibana snorted, the latter in a very un-lady like way.

-" You know that you were considered a prodigy in your generation, right?"- Nejibana giggled.

-" You think smartness is capable of residing in his head after being struck down so many times by an angry Arrancar?"- Zangetsu hollered in laughter.

-" You're not helping! Besides I died so it's not by generation anymore!"- Lucca shouted at the two.

Passerby shinigamis looked over their shoulders and around them as they thought they were hearing voices so Lucca had to resign himself to quietly glare at his two zanpakutou while listening to other things the Old Man was suggesting.

-" Perhaps you could search those documents in the place where the confidential things are kept?"- he suggested.

-" That's a good idea, but... Where is that place exactly?"- Lucca asked.

-" My guess?"- the Old Man said with a slight frown -" Where their security is tighter."

I hummed in agreement while trying to figure out where that was. And when I did, I'm not proud to say that I tripped over my feet.

-" You want to bust inside the First Division?! That's where the old guy Aizen told us to stay away from is!"- Lucca gasped.

-" It's our best bet."- the Old Man said -" And you can use the Divide to enter inside of it unnoticed."

-" Oh, just in case you're forgetting or were simply distracted at that time but I can be sensed inside of the Divide, apparently, by the captains!"- Lucca hissed.

-" You just have to go deeper into the Divide and blend in."- the Old Man calmly stated.

-" And risk being turned permanently into reishi?! No thank you."- Lucca frowned.

-" You won't turn into reishi..."- the Old Man said.

-" I don't believe you just yet."- Lucca told him.

The older Zangetsu flinched, though no one noticed, and gazed through the corner of his eye his wielder.

Because no matter what 'Lucca' said he _was_ Ichigo. And if only he had stayed in the living world, he would have been able to overpower both hollows and keep their influence to a bare minimum. But no... he had stayed inside a hollow environment and only recently had he gained power to communicate and manifest himself to the boy.  
And what was worse was that while he didn't relate with shinigamis, which itself was a good thing, he instead related with hollows. The **things** he and his kind were meant to destroy and exterminate.

So even if the hollows were allowing him to play along and pretend to be part of his zanpakutou, he knew that the boy understood that something was amiss. Perhaps he would not notice how is presence was different? He knew that was impossible, and had been certain the boy did knew something because he showed peculiar interest in those quincy records.

Though those did little more than gross the pre-teen out.

-" **He's right King.** "- Zangetsu told him-" **The First Division is the most probable place.** "

Lucca gave him a pointed look before he huffed.  
What he did to get home faster...

Lucca concentrated more on the tight control he had over the surrounding reishi and with a small nudge of his own reiyoku, he submerged himself in the veins of pure reishi that existed in Seireitei.  
In other words, he became one with the very atmosphere that made Soul Society.

It was very risky doing so because at that point, so deep into the reishi, the user no longer had a physical form. It's entire body turned into particles.  
Now you can see how a prolonged stay inside of the Divide was going to end. Everything inside of it sooner or later turned into stray particles, and the deeper levels just fastened that effect.  
Lucca knew that he could stay almost a full day inside of the Divide if he was not to stray into the deeper levels, but just one layer deeper and his time was cut to mere twelve hours.

And the level after that was only possible for three.  
As of yet, he was not able to enter any deeper into the Divide in fear of being permanently stuck there and eventually dissolving.

If the world inside of the Divide was already monochromatic and slow motioned, then in the deeper levels all traces of color faded and everything started to move even slower until it stopped altogether.  
As Lucca was in the deepest level he could managed the world seemed really faded and it took about two minutes for a shinigami to take a single step.

But was better about the deeper levels were the doors.

Like I said, the Divide allowed travel to anywhere one wanted as long as it is connected to reishi.  
And in a place like Soul Society where everything is made of reishi, there was almost nowhere Lucca didn't have access to. But places that purposely sealed off reishi were off limits.

The doors were the metaphorical way to say instant travel to the desired destination. The only problem was that it took effort and the further the intended place was, the more power it took.

Lucca just hoped that no one was inside of where he intended to go.  
Inside of the Divide he simply ordered it to take him to where the most well secured storage was. Which was easy because, if you didn't know, reishi is sentient.

In a sensation close to being tossed, Lucca was ejected out of the Divide and fell face first into the dusty floor of the First Division vault.

* * *

Lucca groaned as he sat on the ground and massaged his now bruised forehead. That had hurt.  
Zangetsu had returned to where he had come out of, but that didn't mean Lucca didn't hear his laughter and mockery, so only Nejibana and the Old Man were with him.

The arrancar's eyes moved across the room as he analyzed where he was, how it was closed, how he could get out of it and what there was inside of the vault.  
Well, first off the room was dark, very dark.

The air inside of the vault was stale and there was a fine layer of dust covering everything that was not protected by something else. The smell of the room was of really old books and something else Lucca couldn't describe.  
As he walked around a bit he noticed that we was leaving footprints behind.

That was not good... But if the room was closed and there was dust everywhere then it meant that someone rarely came in here. Or that Seireitei was filled with really lazy people.

Lucca blinked.  
He couldn't answer that mental question. He remembered, thanks to Kaien's memories, that there were hardworking people inside of Seireitei like the 13th Division captain. But then there was the 8th captain...

 _Yeah, there was the possibility that someone just didn't really like cleaning._

Resuming his overlook of the room, he noticed that there were only documents in one section of the vault but deeper inside of it there were also objects and things Lucca didn't know how to explain.  
Curiosity and the need to look around and explore everything kicked in.

He just had to see what was inside of this place.

 _Throughly and in great detail._

* * *

Aizen was smiling warmly as he walked towards the meeting hall. His aura the picture perfect of a calm and patient person made his disguise work wonderfully.  
No one suspected a thing about who he really was and apart from the 10th captain, who was too nosy and distrustful for his own good, who gave Gin a wide berth, there was nothing wrong.

And even then, the 10th captain distrust was working in his favor and was rather helpful to his plan.

When he arrived at the meeting almost every captain was already there.  
With Gin being the last to arrive, as usual.

But before any type of conversation or banter could start the loud sound caused by the cane of the soutaichou silenced everyone. His expression was serious and he started to addresses the several topics they had to discuss.  
A good three or four hours passed when there was a prolonged pause in the soutaichou's speech, which caused a few curious gazes, followed by a thunderous amount of reiatsu that overpowered the room.

Reiatsu and killing intent. Lots of killing intent.

The captains inside of the room were in various states of discomposure. They had been caught off guard at the abysmal amount of power that suddenly suffocated the air. Furthermore inside a room where reiatsu shouldn't be able to penetrate unless from inside.  
So the fact that an outside source managed to penetrate the room was ludicrous.

Then again, just the weight and pressure that was being emitted was in itself impossible.

So the captains were left shocked when just as fast as it came, it disappeared again.

-" Find out where the source came from!"- the soutaichou ordered, breaking the captains out of their shock and making them leave the room in the blink of an eye.

 _Once he was certain that no one was near, the soutaichou let a raspy breath and cleaned the bead of sweat that threatened to fall from his brow..._

* * *

Lucca was like a kid in a candy shop. There were so many things that he found inside of the vault that were useful that it surprised Lucca that they had been put away in the first place.  
He had already found what Aizen wanted and had secured the documents inside of a small bag on his person. Of course, only after he had read and reread the paper back and forth to make sure he remembered everything, as per the insistence of his zanpakutous.

The Old Man and Nejibana had been helping him but he didn't know how much time had passed since they had started scavenging for something small enough they could take unnoticed and useful enough it was worth the trouble when Lucca finally came up for air. The other two zanpakutou had returned to his inner world. The pre-teen sighed.

There was only a handful of other things left to be prodded and poked and Lucca was starting to feel tired and hungry.

He gazed at the things that were left and pondered if they were worth the trouble to see what they were.  
A wave of insistence flowed through him and Lucca sighed. Of course the Old Man wanted him to see what they were.

He was standing near the back of the room where he had to his left a big shelf filled with old and worn out books, while to his right there was an assortment of things that were simply and plain weird.  
A white box made of stone, which had a tag that read 'Ark' of...' (well, something... it was torn off at the end), with a wooden lid was near the corner of the room.

Then there was this red sheathed katana that was bound in chains and weird strips of paper encased in a glass display case. Beside the case there were two cardboard boxes with the weird slips of paper in one of them and in the other there were several black bracelets.  
Or handcuffs... they looked like things used to bind someone.

Zangetsu commented they looked cool so Lucca figured taking one or two and placing them inside his bag wouldn't be noticeable to the shinigamis.

That was all there was to the right...  
Turning to the left Lucca groaned internally. Don't get him wrong, he didn't dislike books. There were fantastic stories and such that he had managed to read or get in possession off thanks to Gin or Aizen. Even Ulquiorra gave him a book or two to read.  
What else was he to do when the Arrancars were assigned to do some mission and he had already pranked the Espada, than to read and hid... huh, _rest_ in Starrk's room.

The problem was that, and he blamed Aizen for it, after so much time spent searching through those endless papers and documents, he was beginning to _politely_ want to flush them down a toilet or something.  
Zangetsu and Nejibana snorted at that.

Lucca started to look through the several books in the shelf.  
Now, this event as two options...

One, Lucca would read through the books, memorize them and go deliver the documents to Aizen. Thus ending his mission.

Two, Lucca would find something interesting, lose track of time and be a bit late to deliver things to Aizen, and end up staying an extra day in Seireitei.

Oh, well no matter... Who would want things to always go like planned anyways, right?  
There's no harm of shaking things up a little. And I like tort... challenge my characters. Oh, well...

 _'No matter.'_

As Lucca was walking to see the titles of the books left to read, there was a soft snapping noise. He looked up just in time to watch as a dusty parcel fell on top of his face. The boy fell back and the parcel fell beside him with a soft thud.  
He was totally level headed as he glared holes into it.

It was really old, musty and dust covered, tied with a faded red string. Huffing in indignation at the obvious lack of respect by falling on top of his head, and resolutely refusing to acknowledge the snickers, crackles and full blown laughter and mocking that was happening inside his head at the moment, Lucca reached at picked up the parcel.

He placed it on his lap as he fumbled with the really worn out string and attempted to untangle the knot it had. He was successful but he couldn't say he was happy for his reward.  
Books. Two of them, and they were journals to be more precise.

" C'mon..."- Lucca muttered.

They were equally old and worn but one that had a black cover was evidently older than the first. How it was noticeable?  
That was one was held secure by strings and the way of writing in the ink made it certain that no brush had been used. More like a feather...  
While the other journal looked worn, yes, but much more well kept.

He opened the oldest one.  
It's pages slowly turning yellow and the letters were faded. It was bulky and seemed to be written with a very unique and formal antique way of speech. Almost like it was written centuries before common language was developed.

It was hard to make out the characters used and even harder to make sense of what it said.

But that didn't mean Lucca didn't realize something.

There were symbols that repeated in several different pages, along side weird graphics and schemes. Timetables and scribbled notes were everywhere, leaving Lucca very confused. But the further he went into the journal the less weird and more mathematical it became. Though that was not what scared him.

No...

What scared him were the clearly unstable thoughts scribbled with haste at the very last line of a partially torn off page. A big dark red smudge that looked very much like dried old blood was visible on the top corner of the page.  
The thoughts themselves seemed random and with no real reason to be there but as soon as his eyes laid upon them, there was this drop on his stomach and Lucca suddenly felt very, _very_ , cold.

The words that were most repeated throughout the page were simple notes rambling on and on stating that ' _There are twelve!_ '.

His head started to hurt and he could not hear his own thoughts. His eyes began to see white and black dots but nonetheless he saw as his hand slowly began to glow.

But just before everything took a turn for the worse, the same bland and slightly mocking voice muttered in his ear: ' _So this one was this close into finding us, huh?_ '

Lucca jerked out of his shock.

Who the hell are you?

 _'Lil' old me?'_

Yes. Lil' old you.

 _'I'm no one.'_

Don't give me that crap! I already have three very weird companions inside my head and I am in no need of a fourth!

 _'Hahahahaha! Funny thing is you_ already _have four!'_

What do you mean?

 _'Why should I tell you?'_

Because I asked you to!

 _'Really? Because you asked me to? That's your answer?'_

Yes!

 _'Then I see no reason as to why I should tell you...'_

Why?!

 _'...Because you are still too weak... Creation.'_

Creation?

There was no response. The voice faded like it was never there. But still he heard the barest of whispers:

 _'I would hide if I were you... This is only to make you stronger, but sorry if it counts...'_

He barely had time to widen his eyes when he saw his hand slowly start glowing and a sensation like fire spread through him.  
His world exploded in both light and pain as his reiatsu flared up and devastated the room.

* * *

The captains quickly realized where the massive energy had come from and, without caring for the alarm that protected the vault, burst it open and entered the old and supposedly very much safe room only to be left speechless.

The room was in chaos.  
Everything was either broken, scattered or utterly destroyed. There was nearly nothing that was still left in place, with the evident exception of the white ark in a corner of the room. Which was made entirely out of sekkiseki stone, just as the one used on the walls of Seireitei. The one that had made that ark was long gone but the ark still remained in the vault for one reason or another.

The captains tried to find clues of how or who had entered the vault or even to what had happened inside of it. But whatever did happen had caused too much destruction and a huge mess that, while not destroying them, it covered up the small footprints in the dust.  
When someone finally noticed them they simply attributed them to the small 10th Division captain.

Who would have suggested that another, seemingly, small child had entered the most well guarded vault in all of Soul Society?

* * *

Lucca was freaking out.  
He was literally hiding inside of this pitch black ark that was made of whatever it was that made his sensing abilities null. He had a massive headache and his movements were sluggish at best. He had two of those bracelets on his wrists that managed to make the rise of his reiatsu stop. The Old Man suggested it and thank kami for it...

But back to his situation.  
He was trapped in a room filled with shinigami captains that only hadn't found him by now due to him suppressing his reiatsu, wearing those bracelets and being cowered inside a reiatsu canceling box.  
Oh, yes and let's add that the captains didn't seem to be leaving anytime soon.

He. Was. Screwed.

Either Aizen or Starrk would kill him when they found out.

Well... Starrk would probably laugh at first and then he would switch to the more protective and extremely dangerous persona he had whenever Lucca did or caused something big.

And _this_ was something big. Hell! This was gigantic!  
What had happened?! One minute he was talking to that creepy voice and the next he was doubling over in pain with only time to put on those bracelets, grabbing his bag and the books and running inside of the box.  
Because as soon as he closed the lid the vault door was freaking blown off!

Oh, and he might add that the room looked like it had been run through by a hurricane. Lucca had no words to even _try_ to explain what had happened.

He only hoped that there were no traces of his reiatsu anywhere in the room.

Stopping to take a breath and try to calm his heartbeat, Lucca tried to hear what was going on in the room.  
He had heard several captains voices but between a few he knew, there were some he could not place. He recognized the voice of his own once-upon-a-time Captain and the lazy voice of the 8th Division captain.  
The calm voice of Aizen and the light hearted attempt of humor of Gin was a positive note since it meant that they still hadn't figured out just who had caused such destruction.

Or maybe they did knew and were waiting for him to show himself to screw him over. Who was he to question the way a mad man worked?

He was dead. So dead. What was he to do now?  
He couldn't enter the Divide, or better he could enter but what good would it do? He could still be sensed inside of it and the Captains were now looking for him so no chance of slipping away.

And on the note of slipping away... How could he do that when he was hiding inside of the stone ark? The only way out was through the lid and even the laziest of people would take notice of a wooden lid, of something that has been sealed for I don't know how long, opening by apparently itself and closing again.

Yeah, he was screwed...

Now he had to wait until the Captains left the vault to even try and make a run for it. No use caring if the alarm went off or something. And at least there wasn't a massive door to worry about anymore.  
He grimaced. Small victories... really small victories...

He sighed. 'Might as well rest for a while' he thought.

* * *

Deep inside Luccas' soul, there was a bland voice that was cracking up from what was happening outside.

 _'Who knew that this would end up as actually being fun?'_ \- it said to no one in particular - _'I should have started doing this sooner!'_

Another round of laughter echoed around the dim lit room. Well, if it could be called a room... The floor was made of white marble and you couldn't see any ceiling. And then there were columns.  
Big and round littering the place where the voice existed in.

And then there was the darker stone made platform in the center of the room. Two legs were propped up against it.

 _'He's so going to kill me for this...'_ \- it muttered.

Silence.

A snicker was made.  
Then a snort.  
Full blown laughter.

 _'Who cares about what the old bastard will do anyways?! He can't get rid of me!'_ \- the voice laughed - _'Worst he could do was sent me back into the cycle for a couple of decades... and even then I would still find a way to screw him over!'_

 _'Oh... You're so going to owe me, Creation...'_ \- it finally murmured before fading altogether.

* * *

Lucca fell asleep.

He was in a situation where sleep would have been the last thing on his mind and he fell asleep. So now it was nighttime in Soul Society and the a certain shinigami traitor was getting worried.  
He did not know what happened with the boy and he certainly couldn't even fathom to imagine what _would_ happen if he was caught.

Gin was confident in the kid's abilities to enter and exit a place unnoticed but from what he had managed to understand from Aizen, while he was inside of this reiatsu rich environment and around so many shinigamis, his memories would be more susceptible to awaken.  
And that big ball of raw power that hit the meeting room was just what a big and shocking revelation would do to someone's reiatsu. And the vault...

A strange room that had been sealed for the longest time, filled with even stranger and powerful things that were _meant_ to be sealed away, was just what Lucca dreamed of exploring.  
The kid was a magnet for danger and chaos. So when Gin saw the state the room was in he had to refrain from groaning upon realization of who had caused it.  
If the kid was in the room, and he most certainly had to have been there, then it was pretty obvious that they would have sensed some of his energy or a trail to where he had ran off to.

The problem was that there was no such trail. The room was so drunk in reiatsu, which was pretty dense in it's own right, that sensing something in particular was very difficult.  
And now there was this situation...

Captain-Commander had ordered them to gather everything and make an inventory to see if whoever had entered had taken anything. And if it did, then what in particular.  
So they had cleaned everything up and moved it to one of the 12th Division storage houses, but there was a catch now. What were they to do with the big ark?

They had pondered about letting Kenpachi carry it or drag it but what was most certain to happen was that the man would break it. And sekkiseki stone in that quantity and denseness was rare so trashing it was not an option.  
The others had argued that they should simply leave the ark there. I mean who would try to even steal a big box of stone?

When they finally reached the decision of simply keeping watch over the box all the captains backed up quickly enough, of course... except lil' old him that had been taking a new box of stuff down to 12th Division. This was not a high point of his day.

He was worried sick about where the hell the kid was at, 'cuz he knew that Lucca would have to come out of the Divide sooner or later, and if he did. Even outside of Seireitei and in Rukongai, they would be able to sense him.  
Not even all his practice ease he had from evading the Arrancar and Espada would help him running away from the whole organization of shinigami.

Sighing he slumped next to the box and hit his fist on the wooden lid.

He suddenly heard a jerk and shuffling happen inside the box.

 _'He couldn't have...'_ \- Gin thought.

Quickly looking around to see if there was anyone around, Gin sent his reiatsu to sense the area. There was no one nearby.  
In a single motion he yanked the lid open and was greeted with the single ***** wide honey brown eye of the young arrancar.

He couldn't help it.

Gin smiled that sickeningly ' _sweet_ ' smile of his.

-" Well, well... What do we have here?"- he asked rhetorically-" It seems I have found a little mouse!"

Lucca was silent. This was not a bad outcome of the situation, because it _could_ have been worse, but **this** was not one that high on the 'Good Outcome List'. This was near the bottom, above anything that contained the name Tousen Kaname.  
A bead of sweat fell down from his brow and he shivered.

-" H-Hi... G-Gin..."- Lucca said in a very quiet voice.

It was official.  
 _He was definitely dead._

* * *

Lucca had entered the Divide and ran all the way to Gin's room. And he had ran like hell was on his heels.  
Gin had been furious but, fortunately for him, had to refrain from lashing out too severely or risk catching the attention of the Gotei. Unfortunately that 'too severely' didn't include lifting Lucca by the neck of his shikakusho and face the wrath in those cold and furious blue eyes.

He was trembling by the time Gin let him run off to his Division.

While true that he had been Kaien, a shinigami lieutenant and wielder to the strongest water based zanpakutou, who had been a lot older than Gin at that time.  
And it was also truth that he now had two zanpakutous, which he was excited to try and use.

It was also true that he was still a kid at heart.  
And being reprimanded that badly had left him panicking.

If Gin didn't kill him, then Aizen would. And if neither did kill him, then Starrk and Lilynette would fix that real soon.  
Ugh... Lilynette wouldn't just kill him. She would torture him and 'killing' him would be more like putting him out of his misery.  
He knew accepting this mission was a bad thing! He knew it!

Gin had to wait for his substitute before going back but he had made it very, **very** clear to Lucca that he better be inside of that closet by the time he was back or hell would seem the perfect place to spend a vacation in.  
Entering the Divide faster than ever and fleeing for his life had been a good decision at the time.

But now, cowering away inside of Gin's closet, with his backpack beside him and staring at the bracelets he still had on his wrists, the pure and unaltered fear of what was going to happen to him finally sank in.

He simply went blank.

* * *

Nejibana, Zangetsu and the Old Man were back on Lucca's real inner world.  
It was a nice place with all of their favorite things. Well... maybe.

Old Man had his skyscrapers. She had a lot of water. And Zangetsu... he was having a literal blast in wrecking something way off in the distance. The real downside was that there was a lot of sand.  
Like a freaking desert of sand that almost buried the skyscrapers and made a nice little beach when met with the water.

But right now, thanks to the damn bracelets Zangetsu had liked so much, they were unable to communicate with Lucca. And the poor boy was having a hard time.  
Which was evident because they were being drenched in despair and fear.

Nejibana sighed while the Old Man muttered something about hating rain. Who had she pissed off in a previous life to deserve being stuck with two idiots.  
Yes, the Old Man had been OK until he figured out who they were, now he was that shadow over your shoulder every time you said you were leaving to do something.

 _He did not trust them._

Well, fine by her. She didn't trust completely on the guy either. Nejibana had made a bet with Zangetsu one day that the guy would have sealed their powers for good had it not been that day.  
Quincy powers were different than Shinigami powers. While theirs were sentient, the quincies focused on reishi manipulation. Unless their wielder wanted to use them they would not activate.

Well... maybe **blut** would activate in a subconscious reaction, but for that purpose Lucca had **hierro**.  
And Lucca had been trained in hollow abilities not in shinigami or quincy ones. He knew how to use their zanpakutou but would have to learn from scratch anything about Zangetsu.

Perhaps now her wielder would be able to learn Bankai. Nejibana grinned.

 _'Oh, yeah... I would love to Bankai the hell out of Aizen.'_ \- she said to herself.

She dropped to the ground and looked up at the sky. Or better yet. At the sideways sky.  
The blue haired zanpakutou frowned when she spotted something unusual in it. While yes, a sideways sky was something unusual what had caught her attention was the big white thing that was floating above.

It looked like some sort of ancient temple. Like... like the Greek temples Kaien had seen in the Living World. Though this was was still standing.  
 _Strange..._

* * *

Gin was fuming by the time he reached his room.  
He was going to rip the kid a new one and he was certainly going to drag him all the way to Aizen and have him explain what had happened and what had he been thinking when he released enough reiatsu to alert the whole Gotei 13!

One step through the door and he had already cast the strongest privacy kido he knew. This was going to be a loud discussion and he was certain he would not be the one screaming.  
Eyes opened and a fierce scowl on his face he flung the closet door open...

And froze.

Now, let it not be said that Gin was soft or too emotional for the job but when you where face to face with a crying 13 year old that was shaking like a leaf and had suppressant bands, tied so tight that his hands were losing their color, around both his wrists. You certainly lost some of your anger.  
Heck, just knowing that **Lucca** of all people was the one crying made it hard to want to scream at him.

 _And Lucca was Kaien..._

Gin gulped. This was not good.  
He tried to reach for the boy but when he noticed Gin he must've saw something else because he tried to hide deeper into the closet, which was not possible because there was a divisor between the two halves of it.  
Lucca's eye was wide and there were cracks on his mask. He wasn't concentrating enough to keep the mask partially materialized.

Gin grabbed his arm but he soon found himself with a foot on his face.  
He let go and looked at the kid again.

His eyes were blank.

 _'Oh, hell...'_ \- Gin thought.

This was not _'Lucca'_. This was the instinct of someone trapped. And that someone was not going down without a fight.  
Yes, he was crying and his vision was most likely muddled but even while trembling Lucca had one strong pair of arms and legs. It was all or nothing.

Gin reached for Lucca again but instead of grabbing an arm or so he reached and yanked Lucca out off the closet and held him down. He needed to cool of before he could see reason again and trying to grab him was not going to help.  
True, holding him down was not so helpful either but what was he supposed to do?

 _Hug him?_

Lucca, conscious or not, would **bite** his hands off if he tried that.

The kid kept trashing for about three hours and when he passed out from exhaustion, the last thing on Gin's mind was to yell at him. All the while he was trashing the young arrancar would either be shouting him to let go of him or to plea for forgiveness.

And _that_ hurt.

He was a double agent. He was only siding with Aizen until he could back stab the bastard in order to avenge what he had stolen from Rangiku. But _this_. This was something that even _he_ had trouble seeing.  
Aizen had searched for the kid for years before finding him with the Primera Espada, and right off the bat he had showed no consideration. Not that he was likely to do so but damn, the first thing the kid was faced with when he woke up was with a group of strange and highly dangerous individuals that didn't want to see hide or hair of him.

A lot of killing intent being thrown around daily.

And of course, his _situation_.

Yes, the kid was most likely the linchpin for something big but that was no excuse for traumatizing the kid into knowing that one step out of the line and they would kill off his family.  
It was a no brainer that the kid had been terrified by the time Gin arrived at his room. He had almost been found out and had attracted the Gotei's attention.

For all he knew, Lucca had just signed his family's death sentence.

And once again Gin had to stifle a shiver when he thought that this was Kaien.  
Aizen had already killed him once. His wife. And caused his family name and honor to fall into misery. What else would the kid be robbed of?

Gin blinked.

 _Probably a lot._

Aizen would keep him safe until it was time to bring Soul Society down but that did not include his family. Both living and hollow.  
The kid would go through a war and it was childish thinking that he would be the same afterwards.

A small voice in the back of his head wondered if it was possible to avoid such outcome. The small and annoying voice of the last bit of humanity he had left that begged Gin to change and not go through with this.  
He was prepared to die but that voice kept telling him that there was just too much to live for that dying was not an option.

Aizen wanted the Hogyoku, there was no doubt about that. And Urahara had it.  
Now Gin was not a genius for nothing so after laying Lucca down in a futon, he'd spare the kid another night in the closet, and removing the bracelets he started to make plans of his own. He was not a mad man but a desperate man with nothing to truly lose was just as dangerous.

 _This would change many fates._

* * *

Kisuke Urahara was someone one would call... interesting.  
He was incredibly smart and sly. But was still human enough to see that there were risks not worth taking.  
Unfortunately, after a certain event, Kisuke's reasoning of risks had dimmed.

Having one person he called friend yell and plea with him to bring ' _him_ ' back or to simply track him down, was like taking a punch to the gut.  
It had been his fault. His fault alone.

He was supposed to keep watch over every hollow that entered the Living world so when one managed to slip pass the system, it had been his responsibility to get rid of it.  
But he delayed it. _'It wasn't going to do any harm'_ , he had thought at the time.

So when he felt the rise of hollow reiatsu flare spontaneously appear he was shocked and started to dread what had happened.

He had not been fast enough...

Had he reached moments before he would have been able to at least save him. To try and stop the hollowfication. But he had been unable to.  
The only comfort he could give the father was that he had attached a cord of his reiatsu to the boys' soul. It would allow him to know that the boy was alive. Now, if he could only get his hands back on him, maybe he could do something now.

He had spent the last seven years searching and studying all he could about hollows and how to stop or change hollows back.  
Kisuke could hope to think that the kid evolved and maybe shattered his mask but that was incredibly rare. The worse of his fears, however were others.

Aizen.

If he got his hands on him...  
He hated to think what would happen.

His fears about that outcome had been increasing each passing year. It was impossible that the kid survived this long without being caught or killed, and the latter was impossible to not know because his link would have warned him. So it was a possibility that Aizen had him on his side.  
He sighed.

The kid would have been incredibly strong. Hell, the kid had been part of his plans even before he was born!  
He had been supposed to either carry the Hogyoku or to fight Aizen for it. And neither of his sisters were strong enough to do either.

Not that Isshin would even allow him to dream of doing anything to them. Not after Ichigo...

Kisuke gripped a handful of his hair and tugged. The kid had been everything!  
He had showed great promise as a shinigami, his father being a former captain and all, and his mother had been a pure blooded Quincy...

 _Wait..._

Kisuke suddenly sat up straight before rushing out of the lab he had hidden deep within his store, startling the black cat that had been napping atop one table covered in scattered papers.  
The cat raised its head and it's golden eyes blinked once before shrugging and getting up to see what had caused the man to act that way.

 _Funny reaction coming from what seemed to be an ordinary black cat._

* * *

And that's a wrap! Finally!  
I have been writing and rewriting this chapter for about two weeks now.  
Sorry about that actually. Bad family problems and personal brooding time that made me way too emotional to write.

So explanations for things about this chapter:

*- Ichigo/Lucca has a materialized piece of mask that covers his hollow eye. Like Lilynette. But this piece has no power so he has to materialize his full mask to access his powers.

The bland voice- well as you can guess it's an OC. No, I'm not revealing what it's there to do and probably will only fully showcase it during the fake karakura battle.  
Yes, I have reached that far into planning for this story. But I'll have to see more about filler arcs.

There will not be a zanpakutou revolution! Muramasa will not appear in this fic. At all. Maybe I will mention something here and there but he will not be important.

The journals- Wait until next chapter.

Gin's actions- Lucca, like Ichigo, has a way to turn people into liking him. Hell, he's even more adorable as a prankster and loud kid than as a head strong teenager. So seeing him suffer, after the kid showed no traces of hating or potentially wanting to harm them, is hard. He kinda sees himself in him by his way of wanting to protect Starrk and Lilynette.

Lucca's role with the Hogyoku- That's a secret!

So, I think that's all...  
It's one am right now, so I'm going to sleep. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Favorite, Follow and review! I read and respond to everyone of them as long as I can.  
You can ask me for a picture of Nejibana or about any questions you might have!

Bye Bye!


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